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KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


BOOKS BY WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS 


BELGIAN FAIRY TALES 
DUTCH FAIRY TALES 
JAPANESE FAIRY TALES 
KOREAN FAIRY TALES 
SWISS FAIRY TALES 
WELSH FAIRY TALES 


THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 


























V 

«• 

















































The tiger climbed up and out, 





KOREAN 
FAIRY TALES 


BY 

WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS 

# vt 


Author of “Korea: Within and Without”; “Korea: The Hermit Nation 
and of Japanese, Dutch, Belgian, Swiss 
and Welsh Fairy Tales 


ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR 





NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, 1911 and 1922 
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 


Printed in the United States o£ Amerioa 


AUG 11 *?? 
©CU681836 

V® 1 


A NOTE TO THE FRIENDS OF KOREA 


Everywhere on earth the fairy world of 
each country is older and perhaps more endur- 
ing than the one we see and feel and tread upon. 
So I tell in this book the folk lore of the Korean 
people, and of the behavior of the particular 
kind of fairies that inhabit the Land of Morning 
Splendor. Yet, if I live long enough, I shall 
write the wonderful history of the Korean 
nation and civilization, which once so enriched 
Asia, and made possible the modem Japan such 
as we know today, of which fact the literature 
and art of both countries bear ample witness. 


W. E. G. 





















































CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The Unmannerly Tiger 1 

Tokgabi and His Pranks 6 

East Light and the Bridge of Fishes 11 

Prince Sandalwood, the Father of Korea 17 

The Rabbit’s Eyes 24 

Topknots and Crockery Hats 30 

Fancha and the Magpie 38 

The Sneezing Colossus 49 

A Bridegroom for Miss Mole 53 

Old White Whiskers and Mr. Bunny 59 

The King of the Flowers 65 

Tokgabi’s Menagerie 71 

Cat-kin and the Queen Mother 78 

The Magic Peach 89 

The Great Stone Fire Eater 102 

Pigling and Her Proud Sisters 110 

The Mirror that Made Trouble 117 

Old Timber Top 130 

Sir One Long Body and Madame Thousand Feet . . 147 

The Sky Bridge of Birds 155 

Longka, the Dancing Girl 161 

A Frog for a Husband 167 

Shoes for Hats 179 

The Voice of the Bell 187 

The King of the Sparrows 195 

The Woodman and the Mountain Fairies 204 


/ 



/ 



KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 

>T 0UNTAIN UNCLE ” was the name 
\/| given by the villagers to a splendid 
striped tiger that lived among the high- 
lands of Kang Wep, the long province which from 
its cliffs overlooks the Sea of Japan. Hunters 
rarely saw him, and among his fellow-tigers the 
Mountain Uncle boasted that, though often fired 
at, he had never been wounded; while as for traps 
— he knew all about them and laughed at the 
devices used by man to catch him and to strip him 
of his coveted skin. In summer he kept among the 
high hills and lived on fat deer. In winter, when 
heavy snow, biting winds, and terrible cold kept 
human beings within doors, old Mountain Uncle 
would sally forth to the villages. There he would 
prowl around the stables, the cattle enclosures, or 
the pig peps, in hopes of clawing and dragging out 
a young donkey, a fat calf, or a suckling pig. Too 
often he succeeded, so that he was the terror of 
the country for leagues around. 

One day in autumn, Mountain Uncle was ramb- 
ling among the lower hills. Though far from any 
l 


2 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


village, he kept a sharp lookout for traps and 
hunters, but none seemed to be near. He was very 
hungry and hoped for game. 

But on coming round a great rock, Mountain 
Uncle suddenly saw in his path some feet ahead, 
as he thought, a big tiger like himself. 

He stopped, twitched his tail most ferociously 
as a challenge, showed fight by growling, and got 
ready to spring. What was his surprise to see the 
other tiger doing exactly the same things. Moun- 
tain Uncle was sure there would be a terrible 
struggle, but this was just what he wanted, for he 
expected to win. 

But after a tremendous leap in the air he landed 
in a pit and all of a heap, bruised and disap- 
pointed. There was no tiger to be seen, but instead 
a heavy lid of logs had closed over his head with a 
crash and he lay in darkness. Old Mountain Uncle 
was caught at last. Yes, the hunter had concealed 
the pit with sticks and leaves, and on the upright 
timbers, covered with vines and brushwood, had 
hung a looking-glass. Mountain Uncle had often 
beheld his own face and body in the water, when 
he stooped to drink, but this time not seeing any 
water he was deceived into thinking a real tiger 
wanted to fight him. 

By and by, a Buddhist priest came along, who 
believed in being kind to all living creatures. 
Hearing an animal moaning, he opened the trap 


THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 


3 


and lifting the lid saw old Mountain Uncle at the 
bottom licking his bruised paw. 

“ Oh, please, Mr. Man, let me get out. I’m hurt 
badly,” said the tiger. 

Thereupon the priest lifted up one of the logs 
and slid it down, until it rested on the bottom of 
the pit. Then the tiger climbed up and out. Old 
Mountain Uncle expressed his thanks volubly, say- 
ing to the shaven head: 

“ I am deeply grateful to you, sir, for helping 
me out of my trouble. Nevertheless, as I am very 
hungry, I must eat you up.” 

The priest, very much surprised and indignant, 
protested against such vile ingratitude. To say the 
least, it was very bad manners and entirely against 
the law of the mountains, and he appealed to a big 
tree to decide between them. 

The spirit in the tree spoke through the rustling 
leaves and declared that the man should go free 
and that the tiger was both ungrateful and un- 
mannerly. 

Old Mountain Uncle was not satisfied yet, es- 
pecially as the priest was unusually fat and would 
make a very good dinner. However, he allowed 
the man to appeal once more and this time to a 
big rock. 

“ The man is certainly right venerable Moun- 
tain Uncle, and you are wholly wrong,” said the 
spirit in the rock. “Your master, the Mountain 


4 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Spirit, who rides on the green bull and the pie- 
bald horse to punish his enemies, will certainly 
chastise you if you devour this priest. You will be 
no fit messenger of the Mountain Lord if you are 
so ungrateful as to eat the man who saved you from 
starvation or death in the trap. It is shockingly 
bad manners even to think of such a thing.” 

The tiger felt ashamed, but his eyes still glared 
with hunger; so, to be sure of saving his own skin, 
the priest proposed to make the toad a judge. The 
tiger agreed. 

But the toad, with his gold-rimmed eyes, looked 
very wise, and instead of answering quickly, as the 
tree and rock did, deliberated a long time. The 
priest’s heart sank while the tiger moved his jaws 
as if anticipating his feast. He felt sure that Old 
Speckled Back would decide in his favor. 

“ I must go and see the trap before I can make 
up my mind,” said the toad, who looked as solemn 
as a magistrate. So all three leaped, hopped, or 
walked to the trap. The tiger, moving fast, was 
there first, which was just what the toad, who was 
a friend of the priest, wanted. Besides, Old 
Speckled Back was diligently looking for a crack 
in the rocks near by. 

So while the toad and the tiger were studying 
the matter, the priest ran off and saved himself 
within the monastery gates. When at last Old 
Speckled Back decided against Mountain Uncle 


THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 


5 


and in favor of the man, he had no sooner finished 
his judgment than he hopped into the rock crevice, 
and, crawling far inside defied the tiger, calling 
him an unmannerly brute and an ungrateful beast, 
and daring him to do his worst. 

Old Mountain Uncle was so mad with rage and 
hunger that his craftiness seemed turned into stu- 
pidity. He clawed at the rock to get at the toad, 
but Speckled Back, safe within, only laughed. Un- 
able to do any harm, the tiger flew into a passion 
of rage. The hotter his temper grew, the more he 
lost his wit. Poking his nose inside the crack he 
rubbed it so hard on the rough rock that he soon 
bled to death. 

When the hunter came along he marveled at 
what he saw, but he was glad to get rich by sell- 
ing the tiger’s fur, bones, and claws; for in Korea 
nothing sells so well as a tiger. As for the toad, he 
told to several generations of his descendants the 
story of how he outwitted the old Mountain Uncle. 


TOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS 


OKGABI is the most mischievous sprite in 



all Korean fairy-land. He does not like 


the sunshine or outdoors, and no one ever 


saw him on the streets. 

He lives in the sooty flues that run under the 
floors along the whole length of the house, from 
the kitchen at one end of it to the chimney Able 
in the ground at the other end. He delights in the 
smoke and smut, and does not mind fire or flame, 
for he likes to be where it is warm. He has no 
lungs, and his skin and eyes are both fire-proof. 
He is as black as night and loves nothing that has 
white in it. He is always afraid of a bit of silver, 
even if it be only a hairpin. 

Tokgabi likes most to play at night in the little 
loft over the fireplace. To run along the rafters 
and knock down the dust and cobwebs is his de- 
light. His favorite game is to make the iron rice- 
pot lid dance up and down, so that it tumbles inside 
the rice kettle and cannot easily be got out again. 
Oh, how many times the cook burns, scalds, or 
steams her fingers in attempting to fish out that 


6 


TOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS 7 

pot lid when Tokgabi has pushed it in! How she 
does bless the sooty imp! 

But Tokgabi is not always mischievous, and 
most of his capers hurt nobody. He is such a merry 
fellow that he keeps continually busy, whether 
people cry or laugh. He does not mean to give any 
one trouble, but he must have fun every minute, 
especially at night. 

When the fire is out, how he does chase the mice 
up and down the flues under the floor, and up in 
the garret over the rafters! When the mousies 
lie dead on their backs, with their toes turned up- 
ward, the street boys take them outdoors and throw 
them up in the air. Before the mice fall to the 
ground, the hawks swoop down and eat them up. 
Many a bird of prey gets his breakfast in this way. 

Although Tokgabi plays so many pranks, he is 
kind to the kitchen maids. When after a hard 
day’s work one is so tired out that she falls asleep, 
he helps her to do her hard tasks. 

Tokgabi washes their dishes and cleans their 
tables for good servants; so when they wake up 
the girls find their work done for them. Many a 
fairy tale is told about this jolly sprite’s doings — 
how he gives good things to the really nice people 
and makes the bad ones mad by spitefully using 
them. They do say that the king of all the Tok- 
gabis has a museum of curiosities and a storehouse 
full of gold and gems and fine clothes, and every- 


8 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


thing sweet to eat for good boys and girls and for 
old people that are kind to the birds and dumb 
animals. For bad folks he has all sorts of things 
that are ugly and troublesome. He punishes stingy 
people by making them poor and miserable. 

The Tokgabi king has also a menagerie of ani- 
mals. These he sends to do his errands rewarding 
the good and punishing naughty folks. Every year 
the little almanac with red and green covers tells 
in what quarter of the skies the Tokgabi king lives 
for that year, so that the farmers and country peo- 
ple will keep out of his way and not provoke him. 
In his menagerie the kind creatures that help hu- 
man beings are the dragon, bear, tortoise, frog, dog 
and rabbit. These are all man’s friends. The cruel 
and treacherous creatures in Tokgabi ’s menagerie 
are the tiger, wild boar, leopard, serpent, toad and 
cat. These are the messengers of the Tokgabi king 
to do his bidding, when he punishes naughty folks. 

The common, every-day Tokgabi plays fewer 
tricks on the men and boys and enjoys himself 
more in bothering the girls and women. This, I 
suppose, is because they spend more time in the 
house than their fathers or brothers. In the Land 
of Rat-tat-tat, where the sound of beating the 
washed clothes never ceases, Tokgabi loves to get 
hold of the women’s laundry sticks which are used 
for pounding and polishing the starched clothes. 
He hides them so that they cannot be found. Then 


TOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS 


9 


Daddy makes a fuss because his long white coat 
has to go without its usual gloss, but it is all Tok- 
gabi’s fault. 

Tokgabi does not like starch because it is white. 
He loves to dance on Daddy’s big black hat case 
that hangs on the wall. Sometimes he wiggles the 
fetich, or household idol, that is suspended from 
the rafters. But, most of all, he enjoys dancing a 
jig among the dishes in the closet over the fireplace, 
making them rattle and often tumble down with a 
crash. 

Tokgabi likes to bother men sometimes too. If 
Daddy should get his topknot caught in a rat hole, 
or his head should slip off his wooden pillow at 
night and he bump his nose, it is all Tokgabi’s 
fault. When anything happens to a boy’s long 
braid of hair, that hangs down his back and makes 
him look so much like a girl, Tokgabi is blamed 
for it. It is even said that naughty men make com- 
pacts with Tokgabi to do bad things, but the imp 
only helps the man for the fun of it. Tokgabi cares 
nothing about what mortal men call right or wrong. 
He is only after fun and is up to mischief all the 
time, so one must watch out for him. 

The kitchen maids and the men think they know 
how to circumvent Tokgabi and spoil his tricks. 
Knowing that the imp does not like red, a young 
man when betrothed wears clothes of this bright 
color. Tokgabi is afraid of shining silver, too, so 


10 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


the men fasten their topknots together, and the 
girls keep their chignons in shape, with silver hair- 
pins. The magistrates and government officers 
have little storks made of solid silver in their hats, 
or else these birds are embroidered with silver 
thread on their dresses. Every one who can afford 
them uses white metal dishes and dresses in snowy 
garments. Tokgabi likes nothing white and that is 
the reason why every Korean likes to put on clothes 
that are as dazzling as hoar frost. Tons and moun- 
tains of starch are consumed in blanching and stiff- 
ening coats and skirts, sleeves and stockings. On 
festival days the people look as if they were dipped 
in starch and their garments encrusted in rock 
candy. In this manner they protect themselves 
from the pranks of Tokgabi. 


EAST LIGHT AND THE BRIDGE OF FISHES 


ONG, long ago, in the region beyond the 



Everlasting White Mountains of Northern 


— A Korea, there lived a king who was waited 
on by a handsome young woman servant. Every 
day she gladdened her eyes by looking southward, 
where the lofty mountain peak which holds the 
Dragon’s Pool in its bosom lifts its white head 
to the sky. When tired out with daily toil she 
thought of the river that flows from the Dragon’s 
Pool down out of the mountain. She hoped that 
some time she would have a son that would rule 
over the country which the river watered so richly. 

One day while watching the mountain top she 
saw coming from the east a tiny bit of shining 
vapor. Floating like a white cloud in the blue sky 
it seemed no bigger than an egg. It came nearer 
and nearer until it seemed to go into the bosom of 
her dress. Very soon she became the mother of a 
boy. It was indeed a most beautiful child. 

But the jealous king was angry. He did not like 
the little stranger. So he took the baby and threw 
it down among the pigs in the pen, thinking that 


11 


12 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


this would be the last of the boy. But no! the sows 
breathed into the baby’s nostrils and their warm 
breath made it live. 

When the king’s servants heard the little fellow 
crowing, they went out to see what made the noise, 
and there they beheld a happy baby not seeming to 
mind its odd cradle at all. They wanted to give 
him food at once but the angry king ordered the 
child to be thrown away, and this time into the 
stable. So the servants took the boy by the legs 
and laid him among the horses, expecting that the 
animals would tread on him and he would be thus 
put out of the way. 

But no, the mares were gentle, and with their 
warm breath they not only kept the little fellow 
from getting cold, but they nourished him with 
their milk so that he grew fat and hearty. 

When the king heard of this wonderful behavior 
of pigs and horses, he bowed his head toward 
Heaven. It seemed the will of the Great One in 
the Sky that the boy baby should live and grow 
up to be a man. So he listened to its mother’s 
prayers and allowed her to bring her child into the 
palace. There he grew up and was trained like one 
of the king’s sons. As a sturdy youth, he practiced 
shooting with bow and arrows and became skilful 
in riding horses. He was always kind to animals. 
In the king’s dominions any man who was cruel to 
a horse was punished. Whoever struck a mare so 


EAST LIGHT 


13 


that the animal died, was himself put to death. 
The young man was always merciful to his beasts. 

So the king named the youthful archer and 
horseman East Light, or Radiance of the Morning 
and made him Master of the Royal Stables. East 
Light, as the people liked to say his name, became 
very popular. They also called him Child of the 
Sun and Grandson of the Yellow River. 

One day while out on the mountains hunting 
deer, bears, and tigers, the king called upon the 
young archer to show his prowess in shooting ar- 
rows. East Light drew his bow and showed skill 
such as no one else could equal. He sent shaft 
after shaft whistling into the target and brought 
down both running deer and flying birds. Then all 
applauded the handsome youth. But instead of 
the king’s commending East Light, the king be- 
came very jealous of him, fearing that he might 
want to seize the throne. Nothing that the young 
man could do seemed now to please his royal 
master. 

Fearing he might lose his life if he remained 
near the king, East Light with three trusty fol- 
lowers fled southward until he came to a great, 
deep river, wide and impassable. How to get 
across he knew not, for no boat was at hand and 
the time was too short to make a raft, for behind 
him were his enemies swiftly pursuing. 

In a great strait, he cried out: 


14 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


“ Alas, shall I, the Child of the Sun and the 
Grandson of the Yellow River, be stopped here 
powerless by this stream?” 

Then as if his father, the Sun, had whispered 
to him what to do, he drew his bow and shot many 
arrows here and there into the water, nearly emp- 
tying his quiver. 

For a few moments nothing happened. To his 
companions it seemed a waste of good weapons. 
What would their leader have left to fight his pur- 
suers when they appeared, if his quiver were 
empty? 

But in a moment more the waters appeared to 
be strangely agitated. Soon they were flecked and 
foaming. From up and down the stream, and in 
front of them, the fish were swimming toward East 
Light, poking their noses out of the water as if they 
would say: 

“ Get on our backs and we’ll save you.” They 
crowded together in so dense a mass that on their 
spines a bridge was soon formed, on which men 
could stand. 

“ Quick!” shouted East Light to his compan- 
ions, “let us flee! Behold the king’s horsemen com- 
ing down the hill after us.” 

So over the bridge of fish backs, scaly and full 
of spiny fins, the four young men fled. As soon 
as they gained the opposite shore, the bridge of 
fishes dissolved. Yet scarcely had they swum away, 



Shouted East Light, “Let us flee!” 








EAST LIGHT 


15 


when those who were in pursuit had gained the 
water’s edge, on the other side. In vain the king’s 
soldiers shot their arrows to kill East Light and 
his three companions. The shafts fell short and 
the river was too deep and wide to swim their 
horses over. So the four young men escaped safely. 

Marching on farther a few miles, East Light 
met three strange persons who seemed to be await- 
ing his coming. They welcomed him warmly and 
invited him to be their king and rule over their 
city. The first was dressed in seaweed, the second 
in hempen garments, and the third in embroidered 
robes. These men represented the three classes of 
society; first fishermen and hunters; second farm- 
ers and artisans; and lastly rulers of the tribes. 

So in this land named Fuyu, rich in the five 
grains, wheat, rice, and millet, bean and sugar- 
cane, the new king was joyfully welcomed by his 
new subjects. The men were tall, brave and courte- 
ous. Besides being good archers, they rode horses 
skilfully. They ate out of bowls with chop-sticks 
and used round dishes at their feasts. They wore 
ornaments of large pearls and jewels of red jade 
cut and polished. 

The Fuyu people gave the fairest virgin in their 
realm to be the bride of King East Light and she 
became a gracious queen, greatly beloved of her 
subjects and many children were born to them. 

East Light ruled long and happily. Under his 


16 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


reign the people of Fuyu became civilized and 
highly prosperous. He taught the proper relations 
of ruler and ruled and the laws of marriage, be- 
sides better methods of cooking and house-build- 
ing. He also showed them how to dress their hair. 
He introduced the wearing of the topknot. For 
thousands of years topknots were the fashion in 
Fuyu and in Korea. 

Hundreds of years after East Light died, and 
all the tribes and states in the peninsula south of 
the Everlasting White Mountains wanted to be- 
come one nation and one kingdom, they called 
their country after East Light, but in a more poet- 
ical form, — Cho-sen, which means Morning Radi- 
ance, or the Land of the Morning Calm. 


PRINCE SANDALWOOD, THE FATHER 
OF KOREA 


F OUR little folks lived in the home of Mr. 
Kim, two girls and two boys. Their names 
were Peach Blossom and Pearl, Eight-fold 
Strength and Dragon. Dragon was the oldest, a 
boy. Grandma Kim was very fond of telling them 
stories about the heroes and fairies of their beau- 
tiful country. 

One evening when Papa Kim came home from 
his office in the Government buildings, he carried 
two little books in his hand, which he handed over 
to Grandma. One was a little almanac looking 
in its bright cover of red, green and blue as gay 
as the piles of cakes and confectionery made when 
people get married; for every one knows how rich 
in colors are pastry and sweets for the bride’s 
friends at a Korean wedding party. 

The second little book contained the direction 
sent out by the Royal Minister of Ceremonies for 
the celebration of the festival in honor of the An- 
cestor-Prince, Old Sandalwood, the Father of 
Korea. Twice a year in Ping Yang City they made 

17 


18 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


offerings of meat and other food in his honor, but 
always uncooked. 

“Who was old Sandalwood?” asked Peach 
Blossom, the older of the little girls. 

“What did he do?” asked Yongi (Dragon), 
the older boy. 

“ Let me tell you,” said Grandma, as they 
cuddled together round her on the oiled-paper 
carpet over the main flue at the end of the room 
where it was warmest; for it was early in Decem- 
ber and the wind was roaring outside. 

“ Now I shall tell you, also, why the bear is 
good and the tiger bad,” said Grandma. “Well, 
to begin 

“ Long, long ago, before there were any refined 
people in the Land of Dawn, and no men but rude 
savages, a bear and a tiger met together. It was 
on the southern slope of Old Whitehead Moun- 
tain in the forest. These wild animals were not 
satisfied with the kind of human beings already 
on the earth, and they wanted better ones. They 
thought that if they could become human they 
would be able to improve upon the quality. So 
these patriotic beasts, the bear and the tiger, 
agreed to go before Hananim, the Great One of 
Heaven and Earth, and ask him to change at once 
their form and nature; or, at least, tell them how 
it could be done. 

“ But where to find Him — that was the ques- 


PRINCE SANDALWOOD 


19 


tion. So they put their heads down in token of 
politeness, stretched out their paws and waited a 
long while, hoping to get light on the subject. 

“ Then a Voice spoke out saying, 'Eat a bunch 
of garlic and stay in a cave for twenty-one days. 
If you do, you will become human.’ 

“ So into the dark cave they crawled, chewed 
their garlic and went to sleep. 

“ It was cold and gloomy in the cave and with 
nothing to hunt or eat, the tiger got tired. Day 
after day he moped, snarled, growled and behaved 
rudely to his companion. But the bear bore the 
tiger’s insults. 

“ Finally on the eleventh day, the tiger, seeing 
no signs of losing his stripes or of shedding his 
hair, claws or tail, and with no prospect of fingers 
or toes in view, concluded to give up trying to be- 
come a man. He bounded out of the cave and at 
once went hunting in the woods, going back to 
his old life. 

“ But the bear, patiently sucking her paw, 
waited till the twenty-one days had passed. Then 
her hairy hide and claws dropped off, like an over- 
coat. Her nose and ears suddenly shortened and 
she stood upright — a perfect woman. 

“ Walking out of the cave the new creature sat 
beside a brook, and in the pure water beheld how 
lovely she was. There she waited to see what 
would take place next. 


20 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


“ About this time while these things were go- 
ing on down in the world matters of interest were 
happening in the skies. Whanung, the Son of the 
Great One in the Heavens, asked his father to 
give him an earthly kingdom to rule over. Pleased 
with his request, the Lord of Heaven decided to 
present his son with the Land of the Dragon’s 
Back, which men called Korea. 

“ Now as everybody knows, this country of 
ours, the Everlasting Great Land of the Day- 
spring, rose up on the first morning of creation 
out of the sea, in the form of a dragon. His spine, 
loins and tail form the great range of mountains 
that makes the backbone of our beautiful country, 
while his head rises skyward in the eternal White 
Mountain in the North. On its summit amid the 
snow and ice lies the blue lake of pure water, from 
which flow out our boundary rivers.” 

“ What is the name of this lake?” asked Yongi 
the boy. 

“ The Dragon’s Pool,” said Grandma Kim, 
“and during one whole night, ever so long ago, 
the dragon breathed hard and long until its breath 
filled the heavens with clouds. This was the way 
that the Great One in the Skies prepared the way 
for his son’s coming to earth. 

“ People thought there was an earthquake, but 
when they woke up in the morning and looked 
up to the grand mountain, so gloriously white, 


PRINCE SANDALWOOD 


21 


they saw the cloud rising far up in the sky. As 
the bright sun shone upon it, the cloud turned 
into pink, red, yellow and the whole eastern sky 
looked so lovely that our country then received 
its name — the Land of Morning Radiance. 

“ Down out of his cloud of many colors, and 
borne on the wind, Whanung, the Heavenly Prince, 
descended first to the mountain top, and then to 
the lower earth. When he entered the great forest 
he found a beautiful woman sitting by the brook- 
side. It was the bear that had been transformed 
into lovely human shape and nature. 

“ The Heavenly Prince was delighted. He 
chose her as his bride and, by and by, a little baby 
boy was bom. 

“ The mother made for her son a cradle of 
soft moss and reared her child in the forest. 

“ Now the people who dwelt at the foot of the 
mountain were in those days very rude and simple. 
They wore no hats, had no white clothes, lived in 
huts, and did not know how to warm their houses 
with flues running under the floors, nor had they 
any books or writings. Their sacred place was 
under a sandalwood tree, on a small mountain 
named Tabak, in Ping Yang province. 

“ They had seen the cloud rising from the 
Dragon’s Pool so rich in colors, and as they looked 
they saw it move southward and nearer to them, 
until it stood over the sacred sandalwood tree; 


22 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


when out stepped a white-robed being, and de- 
scending through the air alighted in the forest and 
on the tree. 

“ Oh, how beautiful this spirit looked against 
the blue sky! Yet the tree was far away and long 
was the journey to it. 

“ ‘Let us all go to the sacred tree/ said the 
leader of the people. So together they hied over 
hill and valley until they reached the holy ground 
and ranged themselves in circles about it. 

“ A lovely sight greeted their eyes. There sat 
under the tree a youth of grand appearance, ar- 
rayed in princely dress. Though young looking 
and rosy in face, his countenance was august and 
majestic. Despite his youth, he was wise and 
venerable. 

“ ‘I have come from my ancestors in Heaven 
to rule over you, my children/ he said, looking at 
them most kindly. 

“ At once the people fell on their knees and all 
bent reverently, shouting: 

“ ‘Thou art our king, we acknowledge thee, and 
will loyally obey only thee. 5 

“ Seeing that they wanted to know what he 
could tell them, he began to instruct them, even 
before he gave them laws and rules and taught 
them how to improve their houses. He told them 
stories. The first one explained to them why it 
was that the bear is good and the tiger bad. 


PRINCE SANDALWOOD 


23 


“ The people wondered at his wisdom, and 
henceforth the tiger was hated, while people be- 
gan to like the bear more and more. 

“ ‘What name shall we give our King, so that 
we may properly address him?’ asked the people 
of their elders. ‘It is right that we should call him 
after the place in which we saw him, under our 
holy tree. Let his title, therefore, be the August 
and Venerable Sandalwood/ So they saluted him 
thus and he accepted the honor. 

“ Seeing that the people were rough and un- 
kempt, Prince Sandalwood showed them how to 
tie up and dress their hair. He ordained that men 
should wear their long locks in the form of a top- 
knot. Boys must braid their hair and let it hang 
down over their backs. No boy could be called 
a man, until he married a wife. Then he could 
twist his hair into a knot, put on a hat, have a 
head-dress like an adult and wear a long white coat. 

“ As for the women, they must plait their tresses 
and wear them plainly at their neck, except at 
marriage, or on great occasions of ceremony. 
Then they might pile up their hair like a pagoda 
and use long hairpins, jewels, silk and flowers. 

“ Thus our Korean civilization was begun, and 
to this day the law of the hat and hair distinguishes 
us above all people,” said Grandma. “We still 
honor the August and Venerable Prince Sandal- 
wood. Now, good-night, my darlings.” 


THE RABBIT’S EYES 


HERE was trouble down in the fish world 



under the waves. Indeed, every creature 


with fins and a tail was in distress, for 
the king of the fishes was suffering with a dread- 
ful pain in his mouth. It had come about in this 


way. 


One day while swimming around in the waters 
outside his palace, the king of the fishes saw some- 
thing hanging in the water that looked as if it 
were good to eat. So at once His Majesty gulped 
it down, when, oh horrors! he found he had barely 
escaped swallowing a fish hook, which stuck fast 
in his gills. It had been baited by some fishermen 
up in a boat on the sea top. When the king of the 
fishes found the dreadful thing in his mouth, he 
jerked himself away. The line broke but the hook 
remained, giving the king a fever and much pain. 

How to get the iron out and heal His Majesty 
was now the question. All the wise creatures in 
the ocean, from the turtle to the gudgeon and 
from the tittleback to the whale, were summoned 
to the palace to see what could be done. Many 


24 


THE RABBIT’S EYES 


25 


a sage noddle was bent, and eye blinked and fin 
wagged, as the marine doctors talked the matter 
over in the council. The turtle was considered 
the most learned and expert of them all. Many 
were his feelings of the king’s pulse and his look- 
ing down into his throat, before Dr. Turtle would 
pronounce what was the real trouble or write a 
prescription for his patient. Finally, after con- 
sultation with the other doctors that had fins and 
tails, or were in scales and shell, it was decided 
that nothing less than a poultice made of rabbits’ 
eyes would loosen the hook and end His Majesty’s 
troubles. 

So Dr. Turtle was ordered to go to the seashore 
and invite a rabbit to come down into the world 
under the sea, that they might make a poultice of 
his eyes and apply the warm mess to the king’s 
throat. 

Arriving on the sea beach, at the foot of a high 
hill, Dr. Turtle, looking far up, found Mr. Rabbit 
out of his burrow and taking a promenade along 
the edge of the forest. Forthwith Dr. Turtle 
waddled across the beach and part way up the 
hill, climbing hard, until he began to puff and 
blow. He had enough breath left, however, to 
salute Brother Bunny with a good-morning. Very 
politely the rabbit returned the greeting. 

“ It’s a hot day,” said Dr. Turtle, as he pulled 


26 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


out his handkerchief, wiped his horny forehead, 
and cleaned the sand out of his claws. 

“ Yes, but the scenery is so fine, Dr. Turtle, 
that you must be glad you’re out of the water to 
see such lovely mountains. Don’t you think Korea 
is a fine country? There is no land in the world 
so beautiful as ours. The mountains, the rivers, 
the seashore, the forests, the flowers ” 

If Dr. Turtle had let the rabbit run on, praising 
his own country, he would have forgotten his er- 
rand; but, thinking of His Majesty, the suffering 
fish king, with the cruel hook in his mouth, Dr. 
Turtle interrupted Bunny, saying: 

“ Oh, yes, Brother Bunny, this view of the 
landscape and country is all very beautiful, but 
it can’t compare to the gems and jewels, trees and 
flowers, sweet odors and everything lovely down 
in the world under the sea.” 

At this, the rabbit pricked up his ears. It was 
all new to him. He had never heard that there 
was anything under the water but common fishes 
and seaweed and when these were decayed and 
washed up along the seashore — well, he had his 
ideas about them. They did not smell sweet at 
all. Now he heard a different story. His curiosity 
was roused. “What you tell me, my friend, is in- 
teresting. Go on.” 

Thereupon Dr. Turtle proceeded to tell of most 
wonderful mountains and valleys down on the 


THE RABBIT’S EYES 


27 


floor of the deep sea, with every kind of rare water 
plants, red, orange-color, green, blue, white, with 
trees of gold and silver, besides flowers of every 
color and delightful perfume. 

“ You surprise me,” said Brother Bunny, get- 
ting more interested. 

“ Yes, and all sorts of good things to eat and 
drink, with music and dancing, handsome serving 
maids and everything nice. Come along and be 
our guest. Our king has sent me to invite you.” 

“ May I go?” asked Brother Bunny, delighted, 

“ Yes, at once. Get on my back and I’ll carry 
you.” 

So the rabbit ran and the turtle waddled to the 
water’s edge. 

“ Now hold fast to my front shell,” said Dr. 
Turtle; “ we’re going under the water.” 

Down, down below the blue waves they sank 
until they arrived at the king’s palace. There the 
rabbit found everything was true, as told by the 
turtle. The colors, the rich gems were as he had 
said. 

Dr. Turtle introduced Brother Bunny to some 
of the princes and princesses of the kingdom and 
these showed their guest the sights and treasures 
of the palace, while Dr. Turtle attended the coun- 
cil of doctors to announce the success of his er- 
rand. 

But while Mr. Rabbit was enjoying himself, 


28 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


thinking this was the most wonderful place in the 
world, he overheard them talking. Then he found 
out why they had brought him there and shown 
him such honors. Horrified at the idea of losing 
his eyes, he determined to save his sight and play 
the tortoise a smart trick. However, of this he 
told no one. 

So when he was politely informed by the royal 
executioners that he must give up his eyes to make 
the king well, Brother Bunny broke out with 
equally polite regrets: 

“ Really I am so sorry that His Majesty is ill, 
and you must excuse me that I cannot help him 
immediately, for the eyes I have in my head now 
are not real eyes, but only crystal. I was 
afraid that sea water would hurt my sight, so I 
took out my ordinary eyes, buried them in the 
sand and put on these crystal ones, which I us- 
ually wear in very dusty or wet weather.” 

At this the faces of the royal officers fell. How 
could they break the news to His Majesty and 
disappoint him? 

Brother Bunny seemed to be really sorry for 
them and spoke up. 

“ Oh! don’t feel bad about it. If you will allow 
me to return to the beach, I’ll dig them up and 
return in time for the poultice-making,” said the 
rabbit. 

So, getting on Dr. Turtle’s back, Brother 


THE RABBITS EYES 


29 


Bunny was soon out of the water and on land. 

In a jiffy he jumped off, scampered away, and 
reached the woods, showing only his cotton tail. 
Soon he was out of sight. 

Dr. Turtle shed tears and returned to tell how 
a rabbit had outwitted him. 


TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 


ONG, long ago in China, even centuries 



before the great Confucius was born, 


J there lived a wise and learned man named 
Kija. He was the chief counselor at court, and 
all honored him for his justice and goodness. He 
was always kind to boys and girls. 

But when a great war broke out and a new line 
of rulers came into power, Kija declined to serve 
the king of the country and resolved to emigrate 
to the far East. There he would teach the savage 
people manners and refinement. 

The new king was sorry to have Kija go, for 
he respected his character and wisdom. However 
he allowed five thousand of the best people, most 
of them Kija’s followers, to accompany their 
master among the Eastern savages. Many of the 
common folks wept when they saw the emigrants 
leave China the flowery country to go into the 
Eastern wilderness and journey to an unknown 
region, full of dark swamps and thick forests. 
Kija was going where there were no roads, farms, 
or houses, and the woods were full of wild beasts, 
especially big bears and terrible tigers that liked 


30 


TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 31 


to feed on human beings. It was even said that 
there were flying serpents that had wings and 
leopards that stood up holding lightning in their 
paws. 

Over the great plains of Manchuria, Kija and 
his army of people, little folks and big ones, 
marched ever toward the rising sun, until they 
crossed the Duck Green River, which we call the 
Yalu. After a few days more, they came to the 
Great Eastern River (Ta Tong). There the land 
was very beautiful and Kija resolved to settle and 
build a city. From the tinted clouds at sunrise, 
rosy, golden, flushed with every shade of red, and 
lovely with changing colors the new country had 
been named Cho-sen, or Land of Morning Radi- 
ance. As the sun rose and raced toward the west, 
where his homeland lay, Kija welcomed the good 
omen as a double blessing. He saw in the calm 
of his first day in his adopted country a threefold 
pledge of continued good-will between the new 
kingdom and the old empire, Heaven’s favoring 
sign of his loyalty to the Chinese Emperor, and 
the surety of good-will from the spirit of the Ever 
White Mountain. 

Having laid out for his colony a city which was 
to be the capital of his kingdom, Kija began to 
build a wall. He named the city Ping Yang, which 
means Northern Castle. 

“ But now that we have safely arrived as after 


32 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


a voyage, the city shall be shaped like a boat,” 
said Kija. “Within its walls no wells shall be dug, 
lest this, like boring holes, should make the boat 
sink. Then also, on the outside, to the west, shall 
stand the rock pillar to which the boat city shall 
be forever moored.” 

Kija was ably assisted by his wise men, who 
were skilled in literature, poetry, music, medicine 
and philosophy. Together they published eight 
great laws for the kingdom: 

1. Agriculture for the men. 

2. Weaving for the women. 

3. Punishment of thieves. 

4. Murderers to be beheaded. 

5. All land to be divided into nine squares, 
the central one to be tilled in common for the 
benefit of the State. 

6. Simple life for all. 

7. The law of marriage. 

8. Wicked people to be made slaves. 

Kija laid out roads, established measures and 
distances and ordained the rules of politeness. He 
taught the savage people how to build good houses, 
each with roofs of thatch or tile and a kang, or 
warming place, by means of flues running under 
the floors. There was a fire at one end and a chim- 
ney at the other, so that the smoke came out of 
the ground half-way up the house wall. Twice a 


TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 33 


day, at morning and sunset, the people fed with 
fuel the furnaces or cooking place in the kitchen. 
Then the flames, heat and smoke passed through 
the flues, warming the rooms. Thus the houses 
were made cozy and comfortable. Every day one 
can see the morning and the evening cloud of the 
kang smoke hanging over the city. It is in these 
flues and around the cooking pots that Tokgabi, 
the merry scamp, plays his most mischievous 
tricks. He is a sooty fellow and loves nothing 
better than to amuse or plague mortal men. 

The people of the land were very rough and 
savage in these early times and being constantly 
given to hard fighting, murder was common. So 
Kija found that he must devise some way to make 
them peaceable. At first he tried gentle methods. 
He saw that the rude fellows wore their hair long, 
letting their locks stream out over their backs and 
that they were often unkempt and slovenly to the 
last degree. Besides they hated combs and did 
not like to get washed. 

So Kija republished the law of Dan Kun, the 
spirit of the mountain, who had two topknots. 
He ordered that every married man should bind 
up his hair into a knot, or chignon, on top of his 
head. Thus the Korean topknot was established 
by law. As for the younger fellows they must 
plait their hair and wear it in a braid down their 
backs. Until a man got a wife, he was only a boy, 


34 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


and must hold his tongue in presence of his elders. 
If caught wearing a topknot before he had a wife, 
he was punished severely. 

Nevertheless the rough people mistook the good 
purposes of Kija. They used the topknot as a 
handle to catch hold of when fighting in the streets. 
The big, burly fellows pulled the smaller men 
around most cruelly. Furthermore, they were ac- 
customed to crack each other’s skulls with clubs, 
so that many dead men were found in the streets. 
To stop these quarrels and murders, Kija invented 
a hat that would keep brawlers at least a yard 
apart. 

“ I’ll settle their quarrels for them, once and 
forever,” said Kija. “I’ll make their fun cost each 
man a pretty rope of cash. Every time two bul- 
lies fight, they shall have a lot of crockery to pay 
for.” 

So Kija caused big heavy hats to be moulded of 
clay. These measured four feet across and were 
two feet high, weighing many pounds. These he 
had baked in ovens until they were hard as stone. 
They looked like big porridge bowls turned up- 
side down. 

Every fellow who had a bad temper, or was 
known to quarrel was compelled to wear a hat of 
this heavy earthenweare. Whenever a crowd of 
men-folks got together they looked like a field of 
moving mushrooms. 



They cracked their crockery 




♦ V 











































•a 























* 






I 






































% 















♦ 



















































TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 35 


When men fought they only cracked their crock- 
ery. In this way Kija easily found out who broke 
the law so that he could punish them. Then they 
had to go to the potter's and buy new hats. This 
made it quite an expensive affair, for a good half 
year's wages was required to pay for a hat. 

Kija's wisdom was justified. The earthenware 
hats proved to be a good protection to the sacred 
topknots and the men liked them. Quarrelsome 
fellows stopped pulling hair and smashing heads. 
It got to be the custom, instead of punching a 
man's face or cracking his skull, to let off one's 
bad temper in scolding and calling names, glaring 
frightfully, or rolling one's eyes, — all of which of 
course made no blood flow. The bumpkin who 
could make the most frightful faces, grind his 
teeth most savagely, and look more like a devil 
than the other fellow, was reckoned the bravest 
and the victor. 

Before many months, a street quarrel got to 
be a perfectly silent battle of ugly faces and ter- 
rible gestures. What at first promised to be a 
bloody murder usually became a noiseless duel, 
or a quarrel between deaf and dumb folks. This 
furnished violent exercise for eyes and teeth only, 
but it passed off like steam out of a kettle. In 
time a gentleness like a great calm settled over 
the land. 

The crockery hats became all the fashion. They 


36 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


were very popular. Even the women wanted to 
wear them, because they were so useful. When 
turned over, they served as wash-bowls and many 
a good housewife borrowed her husband’s second- 
best hat to do the family washing in. They were 
useful also for feed troughs and drinking basins 
for the horses and cattle and for donkeys to eat 
their beans. 

The women, though not permitted to wear 
crockery bonnets, were pleased with the way Kija 
treated them. He took the clubs of the rough 
men, which they no longer needed, and handed 
them over to the wives and daughters to use in 
pounding the clothes on wash days and for iron- 
ing. In this way, the Korean women learned the 
wonderful art of putting a fine gloss on the 
starched clothes of the male members of the fam- 
ily, especially on the long white coat of the house 
father. Thus by changing sticks that had been 
used as skull-crackers into starch polishers, Kija 
changed also ruffians into gentlemen. Ever since, 
Koreans have been famous for their politeness. 

Happily also, the men grew more refined in 
their manners and were kind to their wives and 
daughters, because they saw such shining clothes. 
When hot weather came and the gentlemen com- 
plained of the heat, and fearing that perspiration 
might spoil their fine clothes, Kija allowed them 
to make inside suits of bamboo sticks, as fine as 


TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 37 


thiead or wire. Thus the Korean gentleman wore 
his outer clothes on a frame hung from his shoul- 
ders like a hooped skirt. It seemed like taking off 
one’s flesh and sitting in his bones thus to wear 
bamboo underclothes. 

By and by, as manners improved, finding gar- 
ments thus made from the cane-brake so comfort- 
able, the men gave up their heavy crockery hats. 
In place of these they wore “bird cages” made 
of horsehair over their topknots, and out-of-doors 
put on “roofs” of straw, reed, basket-ware, or 
shining black lacquered paper, according to their 
rank in society. Thus it came to pass that Korea 
is the land of hats. 


FANCHA AND THE MAGPIE 


THOUSAND years ago or more, there was 



a tribe in the cold and desert land of the 


-*■ Tartars, north of Korea, which grew to 
be famous in that part of the world. The men 
let their hair grow long and then plaited it into 
a long braid that hung down their backs, but they 
shaved the front of their heads. These people 
were called Manchus. 

Almost from babyhood they were trained to 
ride on horses, and in time they became such bold 
horsemen and warriors, that they swooped down 
in thousands like clouds from their mountain land 
into warmer and richer regions. They had terrible 
bows and arrows, spears and swords, and they 
won many victories, so that other tribes joined 
them. They captured great China and invaded 
Korea. 

As long as they had been wandering tribes in 
the desert, they were poor and lived on plain food 
that the grassy plains and forests could furnish, 
such as nuts, herbs, the milk of mares, and mutton. 
Their clothes were made of the wool from their 


38 


FANCHA AND THE MAGPIE 


39 


own sheep. They were not proud, except of their 
strength, and they never asked who their grand- 
fathers were. 

But it was very different when they came to 
be rulers of a vast empire, rich and great like 
China, which had books and writing and a history 
of thousands of years. The elegant Chinese 
gentlemen and nobles used to call their conquerors 
the “horsey Tartars.” So they learned to wash 
and perfume themselves, and to care for jade, and 
tea, and porcelain, and silk, and other things 
Chinese. 

Now it came to pass that when these people out 
of the desert sat on the thrones, and wore crowns 
on their heads, and dressed in satin, with jeweled 
robes and velvet shoes, they wanted to know who 
had been their ancestors long ago, and whence 
they came. 

It would not do to believe that the fathers and 
mothers of so mighty a race were once common 
folks who in the distant deserts lived on acorns 
and pine nuts, with horse meat often, and mutton 
occasionally, and mare’s milk for dessert, or that 
they dressed in sheep skin and tended horses like 
stable boys. 

Oh no! If the common folks, whom they now 
governed and made obey them, knew that the 
nobles who now lived in Peking and bullied the 
Koreans were once only stable and butcher boys, 


40 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


and had no houses but lived only in tents, there 
would surely be trouble. These Koreans and 
Chinese might disobey and rebel. They might 
even cut off their pigtails, which the Tartars had 
forced them to wear, and clip their locks, like 
men in Europe and America. These white-faced 
and bearded foreigners they called “Southern 
Barbarians,” because their ships came up from 
the south by way of India. 

“ What shall we do to make the Chinese and 
Koreans think we are somebody?” asked the 
Chinese Emperor of his wise men. 

In the council it was the custom to ask first 
the younger men to tell what they thought about 
it, and for the oldest and wisest to speak last. 
They talked over the matter a long time. Finally 
one graybeard took off his goggles and made an- 
swer. He had on his nose a pair of horn-rimmed 
green glasses, bigger than those which anyone 
else wore. These it was supposed enabled him to 
look farther into the past and the future than his 
fellows. For the bigger the goggles, the more 
learned a man was supposed to be. He looked 
as wise as a stuffed owl, and was very fat. He 
spoke last, after all the younger counsellors had 
been invited to give their opinions. Behind his 
back they called him Green Lamps, because of 
his goggles and their color. 

Now in Korea and China it is not polite to keep 


FANCHA AND THE MAGPIE 


41 


your spectacles on your nose, when you look into 
the face of any person to whom you are talking. 
So pulling off his goggles old Green Lamps got 
down on his knees. Then he performed the kow- 
tow. That was done by knocking the matting of 
the floor with his forehead nine times. Green 
Lamps nearly broke his stiff bones in doing it, 
and then he addressed the Emperor, whose title 
was the Son of Heaven, as follows: 

“ Sire, the common people will not respect us 
unless we can show that our far-off ancestors were 
not born like plain folks, but came down 
from Heaven. There is an old woman, nearly two 
cycles or one hundred and seventeen years old, 
who tells the children about our distant forebears, 
who dropped out of the sky. Shall I call her in?” 

“ What is her name?” inquired His Imperial 
Majesty. 

“ Mrs. Crinkles, they call her, O Son of Heav- 
en,” answered Green Lamps. 

“ Summon her before me instantly,” said the 
Emperor, and he waved his lotus-bud sceptre. 

Now Green Lamps was a foxy old fellow. He 
wanted to get even higher in the Emperor’s favor 
and had expected this. So, having the old lady 
ready in another room of the palace, he went out 
and brought her in. She was all ready to tell her 
story, with which she had interested the children 
for a long time. It was the same story which her 


42 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


grandmother had told, when around the fire on 
winter nights young and old gathered to hear, 
while the winds howled and the snow covered the 
land. Once, Mrs. Crinkles was a rosy maid, but 
now in Peking she was the oldest living person 
among the Tartars. 

The young women called her Mrs. Crinkles 
because of her face which was so wrinkled and 
puckered. Once while the old lady was telling her 
story a mischievous maiden started to count how 
many wrinkles and puckers, the old lady had in 
her face, but after reaching seventy-four she 
stopped, for fear there might be one pucker for 
every year; and the number 117 for some reason 
was thought to be unlucky. 

In hobbled Mrs. Crinkles. She was already 
bowed with the weight of years so that when she 
bowed still lower the court chamberlain, remark- 
ing that it beat the kow-tow itself, excused her 
from making the nine prostrations of her stiff old 
bones. In fact it was feared that if she got down, 
she could never get up again. So she was allowed 
to sit and begin her story. 

Her speech was not in the polished Chinese 
tongue, which for ages since Confucius has been 
refined by poets and scholars and literary ladies 
and gentlemen, but was in plain Tartar, or Man- 
chu. Yet the general style of her narrative was 
very fine. As the old lady told it with animation 


FANCHA AND THE MAGPIE 


43 


and fine gestures all eyes sparkled and the Em- 
peror’s visage — they called it the Dragon Coun- 
tenance — beamed with delight. 

This was the narrative: 

On the other side of the Ever White Moun- 
tains, which divide Korea from Manchuria, is the 
Land of Lakes. On one of these, as in a mirror, 
the glorious blue sky and the forms of the snow- 
covered, majestic mountains are reflected. At 
night when the stars come out the waveless mirror 
is spangled with jewels. The fame of this crystal 
clear flood and the lovely tints which the sunrise 
and sunset daily made upon it reached even to 
the skies. There were three lovely virgins who 
dwelt in the Heavenly palaces and they wanted 
to come down and bathe in the water of this lake 
and live on its shores. 

Permission was given them by the Lord of Heav- 
en, and descending to the earth they were as happy 
as fairies could be. They never tired of their en- 
joyment, seeing their own beautiful faces in 
the mirror of the lake. When they rose early in 
the morning, to see the golden sun rise and tint 
the clouds and waters, it seemed like music when 
song answered song. When the light breezes rip- 
pled the surface of the lake they clapped their 
hands with delight and at bedtime they were lulled 
to sleep by the waves lapping on the quiet shore. 

They fell in love with the beautiful land and 


44 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


became so charmed with it that in time they for- 
got about their old home and never wished to go 
back again into the skies. They were very kind 
to all living things and especially to the magpies. 
These feathered creatures were very plentiful and 
tame, so the maidens made pets of them and chose 
the magpie as their sacred bird. 

Fond of gazing into the blue above and bathing 
in the liquid blue beneath, the three sisters went 
often into the lake. Leaving their robes on the 
pebbly beach, the youngest one always stepped 
last into the crystal waters. One day they noticed 
a magpie flying far above them in the air, which 
seemed to motion as if it had a message to deliver. 
On coming near they saw that it bore in its bill 
a blood-red fruit. Descending near where their 
clothes lay on the beach it poised for a moment, 
and then dropped the red fruit on the garment of 
the youngest of the sisters. 

Rushing out of the water they sat down to talk 
over the wonderful incident. Then they agreed 
that this gift of the bird, which was sacred in their 
eyes, was a happy omen and meant that something 
good was to follow, though the magpie, after circl- 
ing around their heads, flew away. They divided 
the fruit, which had a most delicious taste, en- 
joying it also as a message from Heaven. 

From this divine token brought by a magpie, 
the sacred bird, the youngest of the virgins con- 


FANCHA AND THE MAGPIE 


45 


ceived and bore a son. They named the baby boy 
Golden Family Stem, for they felt sure that he 
would grow up and become the founder of a dy- 
nasty of kings, who should take the name of Great 
Bright from the shining water near which he was 
born. 

The young mother brought up her boy to be- 
lieve that he was not like ordinary mortals but 
was Heaven-born, and therefore should be noble 
in all his actions. When he grew up he was to be 
a prince of peace healing the quarrels of men, 
which should bring happiness and prosperity to 
them and to all the world. 

So in the shadow of the great mountains, which 
were so high that they seemed to touch the sky 
and were as the shadows of the eternal world it- 
self, he grew up. Nothing did he love more than 
to watch the play of light and shade on these 
mountain sides and in the valleys, as well as in 
the reflections on the fair face of the lake. These 
were to him as the smile of the Great Guardian 
Spirit. 

But by and by his dear mother’s breath ceased 
and she “entered into the icy caves of the dead,” 
and he found himself an orphan with no one near 
him; for long since the other two virgins had gone 
away he knew not where. 

Left alone instead of staying among the moun- 
tains the boy resolved to take the name of Fancha, 


46 KOREAN FAIRY TALES 

or Heaven-born, and to go out into the world and 
lead men. 

He at once set about to build a boat and in 
this, when finished, he floated down the outlet of 
the lake into a river. It happened that he landed 
at a place where three tribes or clans were at war, 
each one with the other. They were rude enough 
fellows, accustomed to brawls, and they cared noth- 
ing about other common fellows who were like 
themselves and no better. 

But when they saw this noble youth alone and 
unarmed step fearlessly over the gunwale of the 
boat and advance to meet them in a friendly way, 
they were mightily impressed at his noble appear- 
ance and his courage in coming among them. When 
he told them the story of his birth, and that his 
mother had called him her Heaven-born son, they 
one and all shouted “Our chief ! and put on him 
the signs and tokens of lordship over them. 

At once the Heaven-born youth became a great 
leader. At the head of his brave warriors he was 
always victorious, but he never provoked war. 
Other tribes flocked to his standard and in time 
he built a city, and for his wife and queen mar- 
ried a princess in the principal tribe, the daughter 
of a great chief, and several sons were born in his 
home. 

But wars continued, for the custom of fighting 
was too old to be given up at once. In one of the 


FANCHA AND THE MAGPIE 


47 


battles he and all his sons except one, who was 
named Fancha, were killed. This one was chased 
by the enemy for a long distance over the open 
plains; for they hoped to capture him and make 
him their prisoner, before he could get into the 
forest and hide. 

But when Fancha reached a dense dark wood 
a deliverer came to him in the form of the sacred 
bird, the magpie. This creature settled on his 
head, and Fancha at once took it to be the token 
of safety and to have been sent from Heaven. 

When his pursuers rushed into the forest and 
began their glances among the trees looking 
around for the lad’s hiding place, he stood as still 
as a post. They seeing the bird supposed the figure 
was a piece of dried wood or the splinter of a tree 
struck by lightning, and rushed on and past him. 
By and by they gave up the hunt: by which time, 
Fancha had escaped to a place of safety. 

“ The rest of the story Your Majesty knows,” 
concluded the old lady, “for Fancha was your an- 
cestor of seventeen generations ago.” 

The great Emperor of all the Chinas was in- 
tensely interested and deeply moved at the story 
of the aged woman, and he loaded her with pres- 
ents and honors, and created for her the office of 
Chief Story-Teller to the Imperial children. Be- 
sides this he made provision for her comfort as 
long as she lived. With a vermilion pencil he 


48 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


wrote with his own hand the order that when she 
“ascended to the skies” she should be buried in a 
gilded sandal-wood coffin, receive a state funeral, 
have a marble tablet over her grave, and be 
awarded posthumous honors. 

As for old Green Lamps he was raised one de- 
gree higher in office, given the honors of wearing 
a jade button on his cap, and the right to ride in 
his palanquin nearer the Imperial palace door 
than any other mandarin, except the prime 
minister. 


THE SNEEZING COLOSSUS 


M R. KIM, who lived at the foot of the 
mountains, was a lazy lout. He had a 
family to support, but he did not like 
steady work. He preferred to smoke his pipe — 
as long as a yardstick — and to wait for some- 
thing to turn up. 

One day, his wife, tired of trying to feed hun- 
gry children from empty dishes, gave her husband 
a good scolding and bade him begone and get some- 
thing for the household. This consisted of father, 
mother, and four little folks, whose faces were 
not often washed, besides a little dog. This puppy, 
when danger was near, always ran into the 
house through a little square hole cut in the door, 
and when safely within barked lustily. 

So Mr. Kim went out to the mountains to find 
something — a root of ginseng, a nugget of gold, 
or some precious stone, perhaps, if he were lucky. 
If not, some berries, wild grapes or pears might 
do. Meanwhile at home, his wife pounded the 
grain that was left in the larder for the children’s 
dinner. 


49 


50 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Mr. Kim rambled over the rocks a long time 
without seeing anything worth carrying away. 
When it was about noon he came to one of the 
mighty mir-yeks, or colossal stone Buddhas, cut 
out of the solid mountain. It rose in the air many 
yards high. Ages ago in the days of Buddhism, 
when monasteries covered the land and Buddhist 
friars and nuns chanted Sanscrit hymns to the 
praise of Lord Buddha, devout men, laboring 
many months, chiseled this towering colossus into 
human form. Its nose stood out three feet, its 
mouth was four feet wide. On its flat head was a 
cap, made of a slab of granite and shaped like a 
student’s mortar-board, on which ten men could 
stand without crowding one another. 

Long gone and forgotten were the monks, and 
the monastery had fallen to ruins. The forest had 
grown up around the great stone image until it 
was nearly hidden by the tall trees surrounding it. 
In front, from the ground up, the wild grape-vines 
had gripped the stone with their tendrils and 
spread their matted branches and greenery until 
they nearly covered the image up to its neck. 

But out of a crevice in the head of the figure 
grew a pear tree, sprung from a seed dropped long 
ago by the great-grandfather of one of the birds 
singing and chirping near by. And, oh joy! at the 
end of the outer branch was growing a ripe, lus- 
cious pear nearly as big as a man’s head. What a 


THE SNEEZING COLOSSUS 


SI 


prize! It would, when cut up, make a dessert for 
the whole family. Happy Kim! He blessed his 
lucky star. 

Seizing hold of the bushes and wild grape-vines, 
by dint of great effort Mr. Kim climbed upward 
and got as far as the chin of the great stone face. 
Above him protruded the big nose, the nostrils of 
which gaped like caverns. Yet although he was 
standing with his foot on the stone lips and hold- 
ing on to the nose, despite all his exertions, he 
could get no further up the granite face. He was 
at his wit’s end. Far above hung the delicious look- 
ing pear as if to tantalize him. A gentle breeze was 
swaying the fruit to and fro, and it seemed to say, 
“Take me if you can.” 

But the nose, being polished, was slippery and 
the ears were too smooth to climb. What could 
he take hold of? Surely to shin up any further was 
impossible. Must he give up the pear? 

A bright thought entered his head. He would 
crawl up into the right nostril and hope for an 
exit to the top. So, thinking he might find his 
way he began like an insect to enter the hole and 
soon the man Kim disappeared from sight, as with 
hands and feet he climbed into the darkness. 

Wasn’t it dangerous to tickle the nostrils of the 
great stone man in this way? 

But whatever Kim may have thought he kept 
on, determined to get that pear, come what might. 


52 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Suddenly a blast loud enough to rend the moun- 
tain was heard. Hash-ho! Had an earthquake 
or tempest taken place? Was this rolling thunder? 

No, the colossus had sneezed. Thus the stone 
man got rid of the intruder. The first thing Mr. 
Kim knew, he was flying through the air, and 
he tumbled upon the bushes. His wits were gone. 
He knew nothing. This was about one o’clock in 
the afternoon. 

Mr. Kim lay asleep or unconscious till near sun- 
down. Then he woke up and realized what had 
happened. There was the stone nose beetling 
over him far up toward the sky. 

But in sneezing so hard, the colossus had shaken 
its head also and the big pear had dropped off. 
Kim found it lying by his side, and picking it up 
went on his way rejoicing. 

At home the little dog looking through the 
square hole saw him, barked welcome, and a right 
merry supper they had over the big pear cut into 
slices, as Mr. Kim told the story of his adventures. 


A BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE 


B Y the river Kingin stands the great stone 
image, or Miryek, that was cut out of the 
solid rock ages ago. Its base lies far be- 
neath the ground and around its granite cap many 
feet square the storm-clouds gather and play as 
they roll down the mountain. 

Down under the earth near this mighty colossus 
lived a soft-furred mole and his wife. One day a 
daughter was born to them. It was the most won- 
derful mole baby that ever was known. The father 
was so proud of his lovely offspring that he deter- 
mined to marry her only to the grandest thing in 
the whole universe. Nothing else would satisfy his 
pride in the beautiful creature he called his own. 

Father Mole sought long and hard to find out 
where and what, in all nature, was considered the 
most wonderful. He called in his neighbors anc 
talked over the matter with them. Then he visited 
the king of the moles and asked the wise ones in 
his court to decide for him. One and all agreed 
that the Great Blue Sky was above everything 
else in glory and greatness. 

53 


54 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


So up to the Sky the Mole Father went and 
offered his daughter to be the bride of the Great 
Blue, telling how with his vast azure robe the 
Sky had the reputation, both on the earth and 
under it, of being the greatest thing in the universe. 

But much to the Mole Father’s surprise, the Sky 
declined. 

“ No, I am not the greatest. I must refer you 
to the Sun. He controls me, for he can make it 
day or night as he pleases. Only when he rises 
can I wear my bright colors. When he goes down 
darkness covers the world and men do not see 
me at all, but the stars instead. Better take your 
charming daughter to him.” 

So to the Sun went Mr. Mole and though afraid 
to look directly into his face, he made his plea. 
He would have the Sun marry his attractive 
daughter. 

But the mighty luminary, that usually seemed 
so fierce, dazzling men’s eyesight and able to burn 
up the grass of the field, seemed suddenly very 
modest. Instead of accepting at once the offer, 
the Sun said to the father: 

“ Alas! I am not master. The Cloud is greater 
than I, for he is able to cover me up and make 
me invisible for days and weeks. I am not as pow- 
erful as you think me to be. Let me advise you 
to offer your daughter to the Cloud.” 

Surprised at this, the Mole Father looked quite 


A BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE 55 


disappointed. Now he was in doubt as to what 
time he had best propose to the Cloud —when 
it was silvery white and glistening in a summer 
afternoon, or when it was black and threatening 
a tempest. However, his ambition to get for his 
daughter the mightiest possible bridegroom 
prompted him to wait until the lightnings flashed 
and the thunder rolled. Then appearing before 
the terrible dark Cloud that shot out fire, he told 
of the charms of his wonderful daughter and of- 
fered her as bride. 

“ But why do you come to me?” asked the 
Cloud, its face inky black with the wrath of a 
storm and its eyes red with the fires of lightning. 

“ Because you are not only the greatest thing 
in the universe, but you have proved it by your 
terrible power,” replied the Father Mole. 

At this the Cloud ceased its rolling, stopped 
its fire and thunder and almost laughed. 

“ So far from being the greatest thing in the 
world, I am not even my own master. See already 
how the wind is driving me. Soon I shall be in- 
visible, dissolved in air. Let me commend you to 
the Wind. The Master of the Cloud will make a 
grand son-in-law.” 

Thereupon Papa Mole waited until the Wind 
calmed down, after blowing away the clouds. 
Then telling of his daughter’s accomplishments 


56 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


and loveliness, he made proffer of his only child as 
bride to the Wind. 

But the Wind was not half so proud as the Mole 
Father had expected to find him. Very modest, 
almost bashful seemed the Wind, as he confessed 
that before Miryek, the colossal stone image, his 
power was naught. 

“ Why, I smite that Great Stone Face and its 
eyes do not even blink. I roar in his ears, but he 
minds it not. I try to make him sneeze, but he 
will not. Smite him as I may, he still stands un- 
moved and smiling. Alas, no. I am not the grand- 
est thing in the universe, while Miryek stands. 
Go to him. He alone is worthy to marry your 
daughter.” 

By this time the Mole Father was not only 
footsore and weary, but much discouraged also. 
Evidently all appreciated his shining daughter; 
but would he be able, after all, to get her a worthy 
husband? 

He rested himself a while and then proceeded 
to Miryek, the colossus of granite as large as a 
lighthouse, its head far up in the air, but with 
ears ready to hear. 

The Mole Father squeaked out compliments to 
the image as being by common confession the 
greatest thing on earth. He presented his request 
for a son-in-law and then in detail mentioned the 
accomplishments of his daughter, sounding her 



With patience Miryek listened to the proud father. 
















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A BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE 57 


praise at great length. Indeed, he almost ruined 
his case by talking so long. 

With stony patience Miryek listened to the 
proud father with a twinkle in his white granite 
eyes. When his lips moved, he was heard to say: 

“ Fond Parent, what you say is true. I am great. 
I care not for the sky day or night, for I remain 
the same in daylight and darkness. I fear not the 
sun, that cannot melt me, nor the frost that is not 
able to make me crumble. Cold or hot, in summer 
or in winter time, I remain unchanged. The clouds 
come and go, but they cannot move me. Their fire 
and noise, lightning and thunder, I fear not. Yes, 
I am great.” Then the stone lips closed again. 

“ You will make, then, a good bridegroom for 
my daughter? You will marry her, I understand?” 
asked the proud father as his hopes began to rise, 
though he was still doubtful. 

“ I would gladly do so, if I were greatest. But 
I am not,” said Miryek. “Down under my feet is 
the Mole. He digs with his shovellike hands and 
makes burrows day and night. His might I cannot 
resist. Soon he shall undermine my base and I shall 
topple down and lie like common stone along the 
earth. Yes! by universal confession, the Mole is 
the greatest thing in the universe and to him I 
yield. Better marry your daughter to him.” 

So after all his journeying, the father sought no 
further. Advised on all sides, and opinion being 


58 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


unanimous, he found out that the Mole was the 
greatest thing in the universe. His daughter’s 
bridegroom was found at home and of the same 
family of creatures. He married her to a young 
and handsome Mole, and great was the joy and 
rejoicing at the wedding. The pair were well- 
mated and lived happily ever afterward. 


OLD WHITE WHISKERS AND 
MR. BUNNY 


HITE WHISKERS was the name of a 



huge, tawny tiger that lived in the 


T T mountains of Kang Wen. He was the 
proudest tiger in the whole peninsula of Korea. 
He had the most fiery eyes, the longest tail, the 
sharpest claws, and the widest stripes of any ani- 
mal in the mountains. He could pull down a cow, 
fight all the dogs in any village, eat up a man, 
and was not afraid of a hunter, unless the man 
carried a gun. As for calves and pigs, he considered 
them mere tidbits. He could claw off the roof or 
break the bars of stables where cattle were kept, 
devour one pig on the spot, and then, slinging an- 
other on his back, could trot off to his lair miles 
away, to give his cubs their dinner of fresh pork. 

White Whiskers was especially proud, because 
he was the retainer of the great genii of the moun- 
tains, that men feared and worshiped and in whose 
honor they built shrines. One of these Mountain 
Spirits, when he wanted to, could call together all 
the tigers in his domain, and then, sitting astride 


59 


60 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


the back of the biggest, he would ride off on the 
clouds or to victory over Korea’s enemies. Both 
tigers and leopards were his messengers to do his 
bidding. Only the big and swift and striped tigers 
were chosen to carry out the Mountain Spirit’s 
orders. 

One particular matter of business confided to 
White Whiskers, the great striped tiger, was to 
visit daily the shrines in the hill passes to see if 
offerings were continually made. The people who 
were in terror of both the Mountain Spirit and 
his servants the tigers, daily offered sacrifice out 
of fear. They piled up stone, rags, bits of metal, 
or laid food on dishes for the Mountain Spirit who 
was very exacting and tyrannical. The poor folks 
thought that if they did not thus heap up their of- 
ferings the spirit would be angry and send the 
tigers at night to prowl around the village, -scratch 
at their doors, and eat up donkeys, cows, calves, 
pigs, and even men, women and children. Then 
the hunters would go out with matchlocks to slay 
the man eaters, but by this time, in daylight, the 
tigers were far up into their lairs in the mountain. 

Indeed, it was so hard to get a shot at a tiger 
that the Chinese, who like to make fun of their 
neighbors in white coats, declared that during one 
half of the year the Koreans hunt the tigers, and 
during the other half the tigers hunt the Koreans. 
That is, the men go out with their guns in summer; 


OLD WHITE WHISKERS 


61 


but in winter, when men keep within doors, the 
hungry wild beasts descend from the mountains 
for their prey. 

Now Old White Whiskers was both proud and 
crafty. For many years he had eaten up pigs, 
calves, dogs, donkeys and chickens and had twice 
feasted on men, besides avoiding all their traps 
and dodging every one of their bullets. So he be- 
gan to think he could laugh at all his enemies. Yet, 
proud as he was, he was destined to be outwitted 
by a creature without strength or sting, claws or 
hoofs, as we shall see. 

Mr. Rabbit, who burrowed in a hill near the vil- 
lage, had often heard the squealing of unfortunate 
pigs and the kicking of braying donkeys, as they 
made dinners for Old White Whiskers. Thus far, 
however, by being very cautious, he had kept out 
of the striped tyrant’s way and maw. But one cold 
winter’s day, coming home, tired, weak and hun- 
gry, from having no food since yesterday, just as 
he was crossing a river on the ice, he met Old 
White Whiskers face to face. From behind a rock 
by the shore, near Mr. Bunny’s burrow, the big 
tiger leaped out and tried to freeze the rabbit with 
terror, by staring at him with his great green eyes. 
Mr. Bunny knew only too well that tigers love to 
maul and play with their prey before eating it 
up, and he thought his last hour had come. 

Nevertheless Mr. Bunny was perfectly cool. 


62 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


He did not shiver a bit. He had long expected 
such a meeting and was ready for Old White 
Whiskers, intending to throw him off his guard. 

Fully expecting, in a minute or two, to tear off 
the little animal’s fur and grind his bones for a 
dinner, the tiger said to the rabbit: 

“ I’m hungry. I shall eat you up at once.” 

“ Oh, why should you bother with me?” said 
Mr. Bunny. “I’m so little and skinny as hardly 
to make a mouthful for Your Majesty. Just lis- 
ten to me and I’ll get you a royal dinner. I’ll go 
up the mountain and drive the game to your very 
paws. Only you must do exactly what I tell you.” 

At this prospect of a full dinner, the tiger actu- 
ally grinned with delight. The way he yawned, 
showing his red, cavernous mouth, huge white 
teeth, each as big as a spike, and the manner of 
his rolling out his long curved tongue, full of rough 
points like thorns, nearly scared Mr. Bunny out 
of his wits. The rabbit had never looked down a 
tiger’s mouth before, but he did not let on that he 
was afraid. It was only the tiger’s way of showing 
how happy he was, when his mouth watered, and 
he licked his chops in anticipation of a mighty 
feast. 

“ I’ll do just as you say,” said Old White Whis- 
kers to Mr. Bunny, seeing how grateful the rabbit 
was to have his own life spared. 

“ It is my ambition to serve the lord of the 


OLD WHITE WHISKERS 


63 


mountains,” said Mr. Bunny. “So, lie down on the 
ice here, shut your eyes and do not stir. Now mind 
you keep your peepers closed, or the charm will 
fail. I’ll make a circle of dry grass and then go 
round and round you, driving the game to you. 
If you hear a noise and even some crackling, don’t 
open your eyes till I give you the word. ’Twill 
take some time.” 

Old White Whiskers, tired of tramping in the 
forest and prowling around pig-pens all day but 
getting nothing, was both hungry and tired. So 
he resolved, while waiting, to take a good nap. 
As quickly as one can blow out a candle, he was 
asleep. 

Thereupon Mr. Bunny made himself busy in 
pulling up all the dry grass he could find and pil- 
ing it around and close up to Old White Whiskers. 
Delighted to hear the big brute snoring, he kept 
on until he had a thick ring of combustibles. Then 
he set it on fire, waiting till it blazed up high. 
Then he scampered off to see the fun. 

Old White Whiskers, awakened by the crack- 
ling, yawned and rubbed his eyes with his paws, 
wondering what the noise could be. 

“ Hold on!” screamed Mr. Bunny, “keep your 
promise,” and farther he ran away up the hill. 

“ Rascal!” growled the tiger as the red tongues 
of flame leaped up all around him. He had to 
jump high to escape from the flames with his life. 


64 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Even as it was, one paw was scorched so that he 
limped, and his fur was singed so badly that all 
his long hair and fine looks were gone. When he 
got back home, the other tigers laughed at him. 

Henceforth he had to take second place, for the 
great Mountain Spirit no longer trusted such a 
stupid servant. 


THE KING OF THE FLOWERS 


K OREA is the land of beautiful scenery and 
lovely flowers. Snow white and ruby red 
are their chief colors. In the spring time 
when the ice has melted and the rivers have poured 
their floods into the sea, the whole country blushes 
with the pink bloom of azaleas. The glens are 
white with lilies of the valley. The breezes as they 
sweep the land come laden with perfume. 

The girls mark the season of the year and the 
time of the month by the blossoms even more than 
by the almanac, for they keep in mind the calen- 
dar of the flowers. Daughters that are especially 
beloved of their parents are named from the blos- 
soms, and the Korean house-father, when affec- 
tionate, speaks of his wife as the plum tree. An 
old song says: The homesick husband, long away 
from his dear ones, inquires of a fellow townsman 
newly arrived: 

“ ‘ Have you seen my native land ? 

Come tell me all you know ; 

Did just before the old home door 
The plum tree blossoms show ? ’ ” 

65 


66 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


And the stranger answers promptly: 

“ ‘ They were in bloom, though pale, ’tis true, 
And sad, from waiting long for you. ’ ” 

This is like the Scotsman who calls his wife his 
“bonnie briar bush,” for in the Land of Morning 
Glow, they have a language of flowers. Each plant 
and blossom has a meaning and either delightful 
or disagreeable associations. It is a compliment 
to speak of a girl as a pear blossom, for the pear 
is one of the most glorious of trees and its blooms 
are lovely to behold. It would hardly do, however, 
to call her a cinnamon rose, for this flower has evil 
associations. The gee-sang, as the Koreans pro- 
nounce the name of the gei-sha, as the Japanese 
call the dancing girls, are associated with the cin- 
namon rose, for did not the sages tell this story? 

Twelve centuries ago lived the renowned scholar 
Sul Chong, the greatest of all the learned men of 
Korea. His head was as full of knowledge as a 
persimmon is of pulp, and his ideas were as numer- 
ous as the seeds in a pomegranate. He taught his 
countrymen all that was in the books of China, 
and in the temple of Confucius his portrait hangs 
to this day. He lived in the kingdom of Silla, in 
the days of its glory, when ships from Japan and 
China sailed into its seaports and the Arabs from 
Bagdad brought their pretty wares to exchange 
for gold, ginseng, camphor, porcelain, cinnamon, 


THE KING OF THE FLOWERS 67 


ginger and tiger skins, to take to their renowned 
Caliph and his turbaned nobles at court, of whom 
we read in the “Arabian Nights.” 

When the King of Silla, Sin Mun, was living in 
luxury and filling his palace with too many pretty 
dancing girls, who distracted his mind from attend- 
ing properly to the affairs of state, Sul Chung 
warned his master against the increasing influence 
of these women by telling him the following story: 

Once upon a time, in spring, the Peony, king of 
the flowers, blossomed so gorgeously that it be- 
came the admiration of all the lovers of beauty in 
the whole country. Hundreds of people made long 
journeys to the capital of Silla to see the bright 
blossoms. In the king’s gardens, on very tall stalks, 
the many branches were heavily laden with large 
red flowers. These were indeed lovely to behold, 
but the king of the whole garden was a single 
peony, grown on one stem, so that all the strength 
and nourishment of the plant were concentrated 
in that unique royal bloom. All saluted this flower 
as king. 

When all the other flowers heard of their king’s 
glory, they came to pay their respects at the floral 
court, of which the Peony was sovereign. All the 
trees sent their choicest blooms as envoys. In one 
glorious procession of perfume and color the 
Peach, Plum, Pear, Apple, and Persimmon trooped 
in, each making its obeisance to the monarch of all 


68 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


flowers. All these tree blossoms prided themselves 
on their being so useful to man as harbingers of the 
delicious fruits to come. 

Then, among the bright throng appeared 
sprightly young virgin flowers, the Tea-Rose, in 
pearl-tinted frock; the Azalea, in pink; the Lily, in 
white; the Strawberry Blossom; and a score of 
other pretty creatures of the garden. Last of all 
appeared the Cinnamon Rose. She tripped nimbly 
along in a green skirt and red jacket, with haughty 
air and breath of spice. 

One after the other they were presented to King 
Peony, and gracefully made their salute. But of 
them all, the king seemed most to favor Miss Cin- 
namon Flower. He let the others pass out from 
the Court, but lingered long with the spicy visitor, 
spending much time in her society, as if smitten 
with her charms. By and by he invited Miss Cin- 
namon Rose to come and live in the palace, and 
leaving his ministers to carry on the government, 
he spent all his time in her society. She was in- 
stalled in a place near His Majesty and seemed 
always to have his ear and attention, even when 
the king’s prime minister had to wait long for an 
audience, or even a word. Miss Cinnamon Rose 
seemed to be the real ruler instead of the king 
himself. 

But one day there came to the palace the flower 
called Old Man. He looked exactly like an aged 


THE KING OF THE FLOWERS 69 


beggar dressed in sackcloth and leaning on a staff. 
Respectfully bowing, he asked if he might share 
the hospitality of the king’s palace. He was wel- 
comed and fed, partaking of the royal bounty. 
When at last he was given audience of King Peony, 
and was invited to speak, he said: 

“ Out along the road, Your Majesty, I heard 
of your rich feast and good things to eat. Now 
I hear that you need medicine. Although you 
dress in Chinese silk and none are equal to you in 
the magnificence of your robes and the splendor 
of your Court, yet you are much like me in your 
wants, and you need a common knife string, as 
well as I. Is it not so?” 

“ You are quite right, Old Man,” replied the 
king. “Yet I like this Cinnamon Rose and want 
her with me. I cannot do without her.” 

“ Yes, Your Majesty. Yet, is it not true that if 
you keep company with the wise and prudent, 
your reign will be long, powerful and glorious? 
But if you consort with the foolish your house will 
fall? Did not three dynasties of the emperors of 
Great China fall because of the beautiful women 
who tempted their Majesties to forget their du- 
ties? If it were so with the ancients, how much 
more so is it now?” 

The king blushed, even to a deep crimson. He 
confessed his faults and reformed his life. 


70 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


It is said the lesson was not lost on the real 
human king. He dismissed his harem, sent away 
the dancing girls and ruled wisely till the day of 
his death. 


TOKGABFS MENAGERIE 


{Cats and Dogs) 

HERE are many dogs, but few cats, in 



Korea. Nobody loves poor pussy there. 


They are not made pets and are rarely 
seen in the houses of the people. Even bull calves 
are more caressed by the children than are cats, 
and the puppy dog takes the place of Tabby or 
Grimalkin. 

Korean cats are not bob-tailed, like their cousins 
in Japan; nor is pussy ever used, as the Chinese 
kitten is, to tell the time of day by the width of 
the slits in its green eyes. 

Alas! the cats in Korea are too wild to enjoy 
the society of human beings, or human beings 
theirs! The presence of dogs is especially hate- 
ful to them. Mother cats tell their kittens won- 
derful stories of the cruelty of dogs and why cats 
and dogs do not agree. 

The native roof-scramblers can howl and cater- 
waul, arch their backs, blow up their tails, spit 
and scratch, or purr pleasantly, lick their fur, and 


71 


72 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


wash their faces with their paws like cats in other 
countries. They are highly accomplished as mouse 
catchers and bird-eaters. Yet they have a hard time 
of it, for there are too many dogs to make a kitty’s 
life either easy or agreeable. The Korean cat hates 
to get its feet wet, yet it is often obliged to wade 
in the water to get rid of the dogs that chase it. 
As for the furry, purry kittens, one wonders how 
they ever escape the fierce dogs and grow up at 
all. 

Yet it all came about because a certain cat- 
ancestor laughed when it shouldn’t have done so. 
Although it was a lot of school-children that made 
Kitty laugh, the dog never forgave the cat for its 
frivolity. And this is how it happened. 

Long, long ago, one of the mountain fairies had 
come down into the land from the high peaks, and 
being kindly treated by an old man named Tip 
Pul, who kept a wine shop, called Tokgabi and 
bade him reward the old fellow with a precious 
stone. 

So, one night, Tokgabi dropped the gem into 
Tip Pul’s long-necked wine bottle. Strangely 
enough, after this, the wine never ceased. The 
bottle was always full. Every day Tip Pul sold 
plenty to his neighbors and it was good and cheap, 
so that the shopkeeper was very popular. Yet, 
without any refilling, the flask was always ready 
to overflow. So Tip Pul had no fear of poverty in 


TOKGABI’S MENAGERIE 


73 


extreme old age. Having neither wife nor children, 
his only companions were a dog named Su Nap, 
or Snap, for short, and a cat named Mee Yow. 
All three lived happily together in these times of 
long ago. 

But one day the bottle was found to be empty, 
and when Tip Pul shook it, nothing rattled inside. 
Somehow the magic stone had disappeared. Pov- 
erty now seemed certain. The old man was nearly 
paralyzed with grief and his neighbors all came in 
to sympathize with him. They knew well that 
they could buy no wine anywhere else so good and 
so cheap as they had long enjoyed at Tip Pul’s 
shop by the river. 

Yet this loss of the wonderful stone was the 
very making of Tip Pul’s pets. As for the cat, 
she became the most industrious kitty ever known. 
She at once began to ransack every rat’s quarters 
known, not only in her master’s home, but in every 
house in the village, in search of the missing stone. 
The racket which that cat kept up at night, among 
the rafters and beams under the roof, nearly drove 
some people crazy. They declared that Tokgabi 
had got drunk by tasting Tip Pul’s drams. Yet 
it was Mee Yow all the time. The cat knocked 
over tobacco boxes, scratched among hat covers 
hung on the wall, tipped up the hanging shelves 
and upset the crockery in the closet over the kitch- 
en stove. In a word, this four-footed creature 


74 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


played every kind of mischief that people usually 
ascribe to Tokgabi, the sooty imp. 

Yet, when any one climbed up to the attic, 
looked among the rafters, and peered into the 
darkness, all he could see was a pair of green eyes 
that shone like the moon. Poking the uncanny 
thing with fishing poles, or throwing shoes or sticks 
at it, only caused spitting or snarling. So they 
knew it was a cat, and not Tokgabi, and betook 
themselves to bed again. Laying their topknots 
on their wooden pillows and their bodies on their 
oiled-paper carpet, they soon fell asleep again. The 
Koreans do not swear, but the way some good 
folks hurled bad words on all the ancestors of that 
cat, clear back to the time of Kija, was dreadful 
to think of. Indeed, some of their remarks are 
still preserved in tradition and proverbs. Never- 
theless, with all his pains taken, Mee Yow could 
not find the magic wine-stone. As for Tip Pul, 
he got poorer and poorer. 

The dog could not climb like Puss among the 
rafters and the roofs, but being able to run fast 
and having a nose that could smell a tiger a mile 
off, he made excursions all over the country, even 
crossing the ice of the frozen river. Although he 
fought many another dog, chased many a rat into 
its hole, and worried about a hundred cats, even 
jumping into wood-sheds and running in and out 
among the cows and horses, he found nothing. 


TOKGABI’S MENAGERIE 


75 


Once, while in a stall where the pony, tied up with 
a belly-band by ropes to the ceiling, was enjoying 
its supper of bean soup, the poor dog was nearly 
kicked to death. The vicious brute, thinking that 
Snap was trying to steal some beans from its feed 
box, gave the dog a blow with its hoofs that made 
Snap go on three legs for a week afterward. 

The long winter passed away and the ice melted, 
but the river water was still cold. One day Pussy, 
while chasing a rat among the rafters of a house 
of a Yang-ban or gentleman, brushed its whiskers 
against a greenish soapstone box, such as the king 
often sends as a present to those whom he likes. 
Recognizing the smell of something inside as that 
of his master’s long-lost gem, he tried hard by 
tooth and claw to open it. 

All Pussy’s scratching, biting and clawing, how- 
ever, were in vain. Nor could the dog help in the 
least. So a bargain was struck with the rats to 
gnaw open the box and get the magic stone. Both 
Su Nap and Mee Yow promised to let all rats and 
mice entirely alone for six months, if one of them 
would agree to gnaw open the box. 

Delighted at the prospect of peace and quiet for 
half a year, and especially while the grain should 
be ripening, both rats and mice worked together, 
until out of a hole gnawed in the box, polished 
and hard on their teeth as it was, they got the 
magic stone. Carrying it in their paws, they 


76 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


dropped it where their former enemies, now so 
peaceful, could get it. At once the dog took the 
gem in his mouth and ran to the river, Mee Yow 
following after. 

“ Now, Kit,” said Snap, “get on my back and 
hold tight to my neck-hair with your claws, while 
I swim across. As I must breathe hard, put the gem 
in your mouth. Mind that you don’t open your 
jaws, or yawn, or laugh, till we get across. Do you 
hear?” 

Mee Yow wagged her tail and took the wine- 
stone firmly in her mouth in token of determina- 
tion to deliver that precious gem safely to her 
master. All the time Mee Yow intended to jump 
ashore and run to her master, while the dog would 
be shaking off the water from his hair, and thus 
get the credit for first finding where the stone had 
been. 

It was a long, hard swim and the dog’s strength 
was nearly used up when only two-thirds across 
the river, but the cat was happy, for she had only 
to hold on and keep her feet dry. All went well 
until near the opposite shore. 

Now it happened just then that a party of chil- 
dren, out of school and ready for fun, caught sight 
of the odd pair. They had never seen anything so 
funny in all their lives, and at once they laughed 
uproariously. Snap was too serious to pay any at- 
tention to their glee, but Mee Yow, already tickled 



A party of children caught sight of the odd pair. 




















/ 




► 

















♦ 




6 













































































* 



TOKGABI’S MENAGERIE 


77 


with vanity, became positively frivolous. She too 
joined with the children and laughed so hard that 
Snap’s body was badly shaken, so that he nearly 
got his nose under water and drowned them both. 
This made the light-headed and conceited cat laugh 
all the more. Finally bursting in a guffaw, Mee 
Yow dropped the gem out of her mouth, so that 
it was hopelessly lost in the river and fell to the 
bottom. 

That was too much for the dog, to have his 
labor thus wasted. Thinking only of his master 
the faithful and serious Snap dived to the bottom 
of the river, tumbling Mee Yow off. You may 
well believe though, much scratching and clawing 
took place before Puss let go and swam ashore. 

Alas! the dog could not find the precious gem, 
and when once on land he first shook himself to 
dry his hair and then rushed at the cat to give her 
a good shaking. But Mee Yow climbed up a tree, 
and though nearly frozen to death after her icy 
bath, kept up growling as long as the dog barked. 

After that, in Korea, the cats and dogs ceased 
to be friends. Indeed, they never spoke to each 
other. Wild, unloved and unpetted, the cat be- 
longs to the bad animals in Tokgabi’s museum, 
while the dog is the faithful friend of man. 


CAT-KIN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER 

K OREA is called the Land of the Plum Blos- 
som, but in winter the rivers freeze over. 
Then the men cut through the ice which 
is often several feet thick, to catch with their fish- 
ing lines and hooks the fish that swim in the water 
beneath. Yet they are very glad to welcome any 
sign of the coming spring, and they watch eagerly 
for the pussy willows to show themselves. 

Now there was a farmer who lived in Nai-po, 
which is the grain garden of the Korean peninsula, 
who wanted a little daughter, though other par- 
ents cared more for sons. 

One day farmer Pak, for that was his name, dis- 
covered a pussy willow which seemed to him, after 
the long winter, like a light shining in a dark place. 
He plucked it and carried proudly home this 
branch full of fuzzy little buds. This was in sign 
of his happiness at the return of spring. He was 
tired of ice and snow and now he knew that soon 
the gloomy hills would burst into a glory of bright 
colors from the blooming flowers, and look like an 
army with flags. 


78 


CAT-KIN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER 79 

That same day his prayers were answered and 
a little girl was born into his home. Giving the 
pussy willow to his wife, he said: “We shall name 
our baby Cat-kin, that is Little Puss.” 

Cat-kin never saw a cradle, for the Korean 
mothers carry their babies on their backs. She 
was soon out of infancy, and then it was not long 
before she was standing up and toddling about 
and playing with her doggie and pet bull. These 
little pets on four legs usually take the place of 
kittens in a country home in Korea, for the cats 
are wild and do not allow children to fondle them. 

Long before she was a dozen years old, Cat-kin 
became very fond of fairy stories, of which Korea 
has a great many, besides thousands of tales of 
wonderful people and animals and what happened 
to them. She often looked up towards the high 
hills and distant mountains, where she thought the 
fairies, dragons, ogres and tigers lived. Here also 
dwelt the sen-nin or mountain spirits, wise and 
good, of whom the old people talked and the sol- 
diers painted on their banners when they went to 
war. 

When about eight years old, Cat-kin wanted 
very much to walk up towards the north star, 
which her father showed her shining in the heav- 
ens. He had once traveled up into one of the 
Northern provinces, where during the daytime he 
could 9 ee afar off the great snowwhite mass of the 


80 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Ever White Mountain rising up to meet the azure 
sky. There, at the top he had heard, lay the Dragon 
Prince’s Pool, out of which flowed the two rivers 
that made Korea an island. One was named the 
Tumen and the other the Yalu, after the beautiful 
green and blue sheen on the feathers of a drake’s 
back, so richly colored were its shining waters. 
When her father told of his travels, Cat-kin also 
longed to go north to get to the very top and touch 
the sky. 

But this she knew she could not do, even if she 
had had long legs and were as strong as a man, 
for the tigers were very numerous and always 
roaming about. These yellow and black striped 
brutes were man-eaters. They loved nothing better 
for a good dinner than a young girl. 

So as she did not know any way of getting to 
the top of the Ever White Mountain and of seeing 
the deep blue waters of the Pool, except by rid- 
ing on the back of a dragon, which she sometimes 
dreamed of, she kept waiting and waiting for one 
of these flying creatures to come, yet it never came. 

Cat-kin was bound to have the fairies visit her, 
if possible. So one day, sitting under a persimmon 
tree and reading a story, she held the book in one 
hand, while she struck the ground several times, 
saying earnestly: 

“Earth-spirit, earth-spirit, come to me; come 
up and see me.” 


CAT-KIN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER 81 

All of a sudden the air seemed heavy with sweet 
perfume, and a silver mist like a cloud spread over 
her house and garden. Then a bright dazzling light 
flooded everything and there stood before her a 
glistening chariot, made of blue jade with golden 
wheels. It was drawn by milk-white horses and on 
a seat of shining silver sat the Western Heavenly 
Queen Mother herself. 

Attendant upon the Mother Queen were thou- 
sands of the most beautiful maidens, who were all 
dressed in resplendent robes. They wore amber 
ornaments, and silver girdles, and necklaces of pre- 
cious stones and silken robes with many tassels. 
Their feet were shod with gold embroidered velvet 
slippers, and on their heads were caps of gold stud- 
ded with glittering gems. Cat-kin could hardly 
count the rich ornaments, necklaces, breast chains 
and the jade wands, like sceptres, which they held 
in their hands. These were shaped like lotus 
flowers. The faces of all these maidens were rosy, 
their eyes sparkled, and all had small hands and 
feet. 

In a voice of great sweetness that sounded like 
music the Heavenly Queen Mother looked at Cat- 
kin and spoke to her, saying: 

“ Come forward, little maid, fear not. I shall 
take you with me to my palace, in the Island of 
Gems and give you all you want, besides shower- 
ing blessings on your people, if you will come.” 


82 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Cat-kin did not feel at all timid or frightened, 
but came boldly forward and knelt at the base of 
the chariot. 

The Mother Queen first touched her with her 
milk-white jade wand, that was carved like a lotus 
bud, and made the little girl rise. 

In a moment more, a silver chariot, with wheels 
made of turquoise and drawn by two young milk- 
white dragons, wheeled up close to her, and the 
attendant lady in golden robes bade her step in. 

The dragons were fierce, powerful, fire-breath- 
ing creatures, with wide spreading wings, and their 
bodies and tails together were of the length of 
whales, while their eyes darted fire. Yet Cat-kin 
was not at all afraid, and thought it was great fun. 
Then up through and far above the clouds the host 
of bright beings flew. They followed the Queen 
Mother’s chariot until, far away, they poised in 
mid-sky. Cat-kin was then told to look over the 
side of the chariot to the earth and ocean, miles 
and miles below. She was asked if she could recog- 
nize her father’s cottage, but she could not. The 
whole village looked only like a grey mass of 
thatched roofs, and she could pick out only the 
temple. 

There, spread out, was the great sea, as blue as 
a sapphire, and in places deep green, like an em- 
erald, but she could see no ships nor any coast or 
shores, nor any ranges of mountains, nor signs of 


CAT-KIN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER 83 

the land of Korea. Nothing but ripples and waves 
were visible. Yet in the center of the azure sea 
was an island. The trees were emeralds and the 
roofs of the houses were of gold, and the windows 
diamonds. These were so full of light that no 
lamps were necessary. 

Beautiful beings, all maidens, as lovely in garb 
and face as those who filled the train of the Queen 
Mother, walked or played, or sang in the gardens. 
Or swam and sported in the sapphire waves, or 
rowed and sailed about in boats that seemed as if 
made of marble, they were so white. 

At a signal from the Queen the singing ceased. 
Then there rose up wave upon wave of sweetest 
melody from the players on instruments who were 
in the gardens below. 

Cat-kin thought she heard at intervals the 
chorus, sounding out the words, rising upward like 
pulses, through the air, “Welcome lovely mortal! 
Our Queen invites and we greet thee! Manifold be 
her gifts to thee and thine! Come, thou honored 
among all Korean maidens! Come to us and join 
our band and we shall love thee as one of our- 
selves.” 

In the wink of a falcon’s eye — so short a time 
it seemed — the Mother Queen and her host de- 
scended. 

As the chariots touched the island, a bevy of 
radiant maidens came forward, some to attend the 


84 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Queen Mother and some to lead Cat-kin into her 
own room in the palace. There the most gorgeous 
robes were put on her, beside a cap begemmed with 
glittering, precious stones of various colors, and a 
pair of gold-embroidered velvet slippers. 

Cat-kin was surprised when one of the shining 
maidens set a royal tiara adorned with five gems 
upon her brow. 

“ For me?” she asked in surprise. 

“ Yes for you, whom the Heavenly Mother 
Queen would honor.” 

“ And what do these five gems, jade, crystal, 
malachite, amber and agate signify?” asked 
Cat-kin. 

“ Ah, that is not for us to tell you, but the Queen 
Mother ordered these. Tomorrow she will explain 
to you the secret of each gem.” 

Cat-kin walked about freely, enjoying the love- 
ly sights and sounds. She also ate with keen ap- 
petite and to her full of the delicacies set on the 
table before her. Yet never once did she feel 
sleepy, nor see any beds, nor hear anyone talk of 
retiring. She wondered what they meant when 
they said “ tomorrow”; for she could see no sun 
or moon or twilight. However, she did not think 
long about such things, and by and by forgot all 
about them. 

When the entire court and all the hosts of the 
Queen Mother’s attendants had assembled. Her 


CAT-KIN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER 85 

Majesty’s chamberlain read the proclamation, 
which declared that the Queen looked with great 
favor upon the Korean people, and had decided to 
bestow great gifts upon them. For this purpose, 
she had selected and brought to her palace the 
Korean maid named Cat-kin, to endow them 
through this, their daughter, with five precious 
traits of disposition and character. In token of 
gracious thought and tender love, Her Majesty 
would now present and explain the meaning of the 
five precious gems. These were jade, crystal, mal- 
achite, amber, and agate. 

Cat-kin kneeled down before the Queen, who 
placed in Cat-kin’s hands the shining gems, while 
an attendant fairy took them from her opened 
palm and placed each one of them on vermilion 
velvet, edged with gold. Then five maidens stood 
by, each with a gem laid on a cushion. 

After the ceremony of presentation was over, 
the Queen made a speech, which told the Korean 
maiden’s fortune and her future. 

Cat-kin would be sent back over the clouds and 
ocean to the King’s palace in the capital of her 
home land, and there be made a princess. Many 
nobles and king’s sons from other countries, hear- 
ing of her beauty and her wonderful visit to the 
Island of Gems would come to pay her court as 
suitors. Many would ask for her hand, to be wed- 
ded to her; but she was to marry none but the 
king’s son, a prince of her own people. 


86 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


“ Take these gems, fair maiden, and bestow 
their virtues and what they mean upon your peo- 
ple,” said the Queen. “A thousand years from now 
— as men count time — we together will visit 
Korea again.” 

Then both the Queen and Cat-kin, stepping into 
the silver chariot, drawn by the fire-breathing 
dragons, plunged on and mounted up into space. 
First they sailed above the clouds and then dipped 
downwards, steering to Korea and over the moun- 
tains, bearing their precious charge to the capital. 
They reached the ground in a cloud and the wheels 
of the chariot stood still before the palace gate. 

Yet before any mortal eyes could see their full 
forms, the Queen Mother and the dragons had 
disappeared, and Cat-kin stood alone, a resplen- 
dent maiden of dazzling appearance and in the 
robes given by the Heavenly Queen Mother, which 
all recognized at once as coming from the Island 
of Gems. 

A throng of court ladies and palace attendants 
and a long line of nobles and princes were already 
waiting for the maiden, who they knew came gift- 
laden from the Queen Mother, of whom all had 
heard from childhood. The five gems were laid, 
each in a covered casket of perfumed wood, en- 
crusted with gold on top and inlaid with mother- 
of-pearl. 

Escorted into the throne room by a bevy of 


CAT-KIN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER 87 

princesses, the Heavenly Mother’s gifts in the five 
caskets were reverently placed on silken fans, 
spread out on a table having on its top the five 
cushions of crimson velvet. 

Then, by lot and word of the diviners, the choice 
of a first drawing was awarded to a prince of fair 
face and mien. The other four nobles, one by 
one and in turn, approached and each was allowed 
to choose one of the caskets, all of which looked 
alike, and none was to be opened until the possessor 
was in his own home. 

Now these were the gifts for body and mind, of 
which the polished gems were the tokens. Accord- 
ing as each prince chose and received, so with the 
trait, which each gem signified, would his children 
and posterity be endowed. In the course of cen- 
turies, these would become the national features, 
of twenty millions of Koreans. 

One by one the caskets were opened by each 
prince, and therein he discovered what was a trait 
in the character of the Korean people. These 
were: 

Procrastination — Putting off until tomorrow, 
or some other time, what ought to be done today, 
and keeping back not only one person but the 
whole nation. — 

Hospitality — Always glad to see friends, to en- 
tertain people, even strangers, and to take care of 
relations, even to the making of one’s self poor — 


88 KOREAN FAIRY TALES 

a habit carried too far as the years and centuries 
rolled on. 

Inexactness — The habit of not usually thinking 
clearly, counting correctly, or stating facts pre- 
cisely, and when telling a story of “blowing a 
conch;” that is, of exaggerating. 

Love of family — How the mothers and fathers 
in Korea do love their children, their kinsfolk and 
their relatives! 

Sense of humor — A Korean can always see the 
funny side of things. He loves to joke and he bears 
his troubles well, because he likes to smile. As for 
the girls, they laugh as easily as the rain falls, or 
the flowers bloom. 

And what the Queen Mother predicted came 
true. Just as five fingers make up the hand, so the 
average people among the Koreans are known by 
the five traits, for better or for worse. 


THE MAGIC PEACH 


UT on the ocean, so far away that no ship 



ever sailed there, is an island on which 


stood the seven storied palace of the royal 
lady, Su Wang Moo. In our language, this title 
means Western Queen Mother. She is always 
ready to help good mortals with her gifts and 
favors. 

On this island thousands of genii wait to obey 
the commands of the Queen Mother. She has also 
chariots of silver and gold drawn by dragons, by 
which she sends her messages everywhere. 

The genii and most of the shining maidens stay 
at home to fulfil the Queen’s commands. In addi- 
tion to these servants, she has hundreds of azure 
pigeons, which she often despatches to far-off 
places. In their bills, or under their wings, they 
carry some gift or promise to make people happy. 

In the mind of many a Korean maiden there 
rises the dream, or there wells up the hope, that 
some day the Western Queen Mother will send to 
her pretty clothes of silk, with necklaces of jewels, 
a handsome youth to wed her, and a silver ring for 
the marriage ceremony. 


89 


90 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Then she pictures to herself how splendidly she 
will be arrayed and how fine she will look in the 
costume of a bride; how her long black hair will 
be done up very high, with flowers and rosettes 
over the crown of her head, and ermine-edged 
slippers will be put on her feet. She wonders how 
she will feel when she drinks the cups of sacrament- 
al wine that make her a wife, after which she will 
go with her husband and bow to the memorial tab- 
lets of his ancestors. 

She goes all over in her mind the happy times 
she will have in her husband’s home. What she 
hopes for most, after all these things, is to have 
a kind mother-in-law. Then she will be a queen in 
her own little kingdom, with plenty of rice and 
kimchi, and cakes and goodies. 

So it is that many Korean maidens go out under 
the blue sky to look up at the stars, or on moon- 
light nights scan the heavens to see if the birds 
are coming. Hoping to greet the azure pigeons, 
they put on their best clothes and watch. Many 
are their dreams. 

Oh! how many lads also dream of the genii and 
of the riding on the dragon’s back, to cross the 
mountain ranges and the great oceans, and to visit 
strange, far-off countries; or, they think of the 
pink coat which they will wear. The pink coat 
shows that the lad is engaged to be married and 
will, when grown up, be a husband to the little 


THE MAGIC PEACH 


91 


girl who may be in her cradle days; for in Korea 
children and even babies in arms are engaged to 
be married to other children. 

Then the boy pictures the day when the long 
braid of hair, which he now has to wear down his 
back, shall be tucked up into a topknot, like a 
man’s. No matter how old a bachelor may be, he 
must wear this boy’s braid of hair. He must not 
speak, or talk with his elders, without first asking 
permission. He must be “seen and not heard” in 
company, and every one treats him as a child. So 
the boy also waits for the azure pigeons to come, 
for to be engaged to be married even when quite 
young, or to have a wife when older, means a great 
deal. 

Then the young husband will wear a wide 
brimmed hat after school and go up to the city, 
with his fellow villagers, to try at the literary ex- 
aminations. They will all march together, under 
a banner tufted at the top with pheasant feathers. 
If he passes successfully, he will be welcomed home 
with a parade and band of music. By and by, he 
will become a magistrate and have a string of am- 
ber beads over his ear, and wear on his breast a 
square of gold-embroidered velvet. Servants will 
carry him in a palanquin and his men will carry 
wooden paddles to punish folks who break the 
laws. Then he can strut about, in starched white 
flowing clothes, with the common people all afraid 


92 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


of him. No wonder that the boy waits for the com- 
ing of the blue pigeon! 

Now in the gardens of the Queen’s Palace, on 
the Island of Gems, there grow wonderful fruits 
of a rich, ripe color, brilliant with light and sheen. 
These, when served at the banquets and eaten, 
have the power of making the guest live very long, 
even for thousands of years. 

Especially powerful is the celestial peach of 
longevity, which is served on little golden tables, 
its juice makes an old person’s body new, so that 
one who eats the peach will live hundreds of years. 

Sometimes the Queen sends one of these fruits 
to her favorites on the earth. Yet no one can ever 
get any of these peaches, unless the Queen herself 
gives them, and the peach trees are always jeal- 
ously guarded by genii and dragons. None, even 
of the Queen’s servants, or her waiting maids, or 
any of the genii, or dragons, can bestow the peach 
of longevity on mortals. 

Now it happened that the Queen, hearing of the 
virtues of a certain king’s son, despatched one of 
her lovely maidens, in one of her ten thousand 
dragon chariots, inviting him to visit Her Majesty, 
in the Island of Gems. She sent a message also to 
the prince’s parents, telling them that their son 
would return before the end of the moon, which 
was then in its first quarter. 


THE MAGIC PEACH 


93 


His anxious mother, who had a bride already 
picked out for her son to wed, warned him against 
looking too long at the lovely princesses, or pretty 
maids in the Queen’s Palace of Gems. In truth 
she had her lurking suspicions. She feared for 
her darling son, that, beneath their rosy faces and 
moon-like eyes, they were really sirens, possibly 
even sea monsters in female form, and might eat 
him up. 

She also urged him to be very careful as to eti- 
quette. He must be especially decorous, because 
the code of behavior and manners might not be the 
same as those among polite people upon the earth. 
Moreover, he must notice and hear everything 
and, when he came back home, tell her all about 
it. 

On the other hand, the Queen of the Island of 
Gems warned the lovely maiden, a princess whom 
she sent, to beware lest the prince might fall in 
love with her, either on the way, or when at the 
island. If he tried to persuade her to marry him 
and to stay on the earth and not come back to the 
Island of Gems, and to her duties to the Queen, 
the palace maid would be disgraced and die early. 

Although the Queen laughed when she said it, 
and quoted the proverb, “Don’t trust a pigeon to 
carry grain,” she was really very serious, and the 
maiden knew that it would not do to thwart the 
royal wishes. 


94 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


So this discreet princess made a firm resolve to 
be very careful. She decided that when she met 
the prince she would be very cold in her bearing. 
When delivering the Queen’s invitation, she would 
appear to think it only a matter of business, though 
very important. She would not stay more than an 
hour in the prince’s mansion. 

When the dragon chariot was returning home- 
ward she would be silent. She would hold no con- 
versation, nor speak a word, nor let the prince sit 
beside her, but she would keep in the front seat 
nearest the dragon, while he should ride on the 
great creature’s back. 

So it was a very quiet journey which the prince 
made, while the chariot sped over the clouds, with 
the earth and oceans lying far beneath. Part of 
the time he sat on the dragon’s back, as if in a sad- 
dle, but after a while he climbed back into the 
chariot again, and all the time he was so thrilled 
with the speed and the grandeur of it all that, to 
tell the truth, he forgot all about the lovely princes 
who had brought the Queen’s message, until he 
found himself at the Queen’s Palace of Gems and 
was invited to step out of the chariot. 

Soon he was seated with others, similarly hon- 
ored, at the table which was loaded down with 
dishes of gold and silver which were heaped with 
the choicest viands. The guests, all in fine clothes 
like the prince, were waited on by shining maidens 


THE MAGIC PEACH 


95 


of exquisite beauty and robed in golden garments 
gemmed with glittering jewels of the most precious 
workmanship. 

Upon one of these lovely creatures, a maiden 
who seemed to be about sixteen, not far away from 
where he sat, the prince cast his eyes. She was 
kneeling on the floor ready to do his bidding. He 
was so filled with admiration at her loveliness that 
he could hardly pay any attention to the talk at 
the table. Despite his mother’s warning, he made 
several mistakes in propriety. 

Yet his appetite was very good after his long 
journey and he ate heartily of the delicious fare. 
Towards the end of the feast, feeling in a jolly 
mood, he picked up one of the peaches. Then he 
pared and sliced it, greatly enjoying its juicy nec- 
tar. Every morsel of the pulp, as he put it in his 
mouth, made him feel as if he were gaining a cen- 
tury of vigor. He knew he was lengthening his 
life and increasing his power to enjoy the pleasures 
of which he had always been very fond. 

Indeed the prince was far less of a scholar and 
student than he ought to have been. Often at home 
when his teachers were all present and ready to 
begin the tasks of the day, the lad was still out at 
play. His older sister used to say laughingly of 
her brother, “He never let his studies interfere 
with his education.” 

Yet every moment this maiden kneeling near 


96 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


him seemed to grow more charming in both face 
and form, dress and adornment, ease and grace of 
motion. Indeed she seemed the very embodiment 
of all loveliness, and the prince could not keep his 
eyes oft her. He did not know that this was the 
effect of eating the peach of longevity, for the 
maiden was really no prettier at the end of the 
banquet than she had been at the beginning. The 
change was in him, not in her. 

So intoxicated was the prince, that he so far 
forgot himself and what his mother had told him 
not to do, that he picked out one of the finest-look- 
ing of the peaches from its golden basket on the 
table and tossed it over to the pretty maiden. 

On her part the maid of honor had herself been 
so wrapped up in admiration of the young and 
princely guest, that when he motioned that he was 
about to toss a peach to her she broke the rule of 
the Palace of Gems. She threw out her hands and 
caught the peach deftly, as if playing ball. 

The palace ladies were all horrified. They had 
been taught that, except to perform the duties of 
waiting and serving, they were to pay no attention 
to anything the guests might say or do. When 
heated with wine the guests might be only making 
sport of the attendants. They were to decline any 
personal attentions and continue in their duty of 
serving. But instead of averting her gaze, or bow- 
ing low with her face to the ground, or having her 


THE MAGIC PEACH 


97 


eyes downcast, the maid, actually threw out her 
hands, caught the peach and, to the horror of all 
who saw her, bit into it and swallowed the morsel. 

What it was that happened the very next mo- 
ment even the fairies could not tell or exactly re- 
member; for a golden mist seemed to fall in the 
banquet hall, enveloping everything. 

It happens that just here in the story a great 
gap occurs. At such a pause the Korean story- 
teller, who sits in his booth in one of the back 
streets of Seoul, would stop and send his boy to 
take up a collection from the crowd. Nor would 
he go on, until all had been invited to give and the 
coins rattled in the gourd shell. 

When he began again some said it was the same 
story continued. Others were sure it was a new 
story, but that the palace maid and the prince were 
the same who had been in the banquet hall of the 
Western Queen Mother, in the Island of Geirr 
and that the peach had never lost, since it never 
could lose its virtues, because given by the Queen. 
But such as it was, this is the way the story ran on: 

More than a thousand years afterwards it was 
known that in the high mountains of the Ever 
White range lived a holy man, a hermit, who was 
honored, almost worshiped by the people in that 
region. In the summer time hundreds of pilgrims 


98 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


visited his hut to hear wise words about how to 
live and do good, and then to receive the hermit’s 
blessing. Even the wild beasts appeared to be 
tame in his presence. At any rate, they never tried 
to bite or devour one another, or hurt the old man 
or to destroy his humble shelter. The tigers, the 
leopards and the bears seemed to forget they had 
claws, or teeth; while their little cubs played 
peacefully with each other. 

The dress of this hermit was of the ancient style 
of a thousand years before, of the time of the an- 
cient dynasty of Ko. 

One day while out on one of his walks this old, 
white-bearded hermit met a woman of fair coun- 
tenance, who seemed to be quite young, for her 
face was unwrinkled and rosy. It appeared that 
she had travelled far, yet she walked with the 
springing step of a maiden who was still in her 
teens. Her dress betokened that of ages gone, for 
it was of the sort and fashion which are revealed 
in the cave pictures painted on the walls of the 
dolmens, or the colossal stone chambers, in which 
kings and mighty men were buried, ten or fifteen 
centuries ago, which are very many in Korea. 

The hermit and maid met in the path under the 
tall pine tree and exchanged greetings, the lady 
bowing very low. Then, as she looked up in his 
eyes, her face became radiant with joy as if she 
recognized a dear friend 


THE MAGIC PEACH 


99 


The sage inquired who she was, and whether she 
were the wandering lady, of whom rumor spoke 
of having been seen during centuries, over all the 
nine provinces of Korea, by people who were great 
grandfathers, as well as by the children of that 
day. 

Then she told her story. 

She was the same palace maid, who, in the West- 
ern Queen Mother’s palace on the Island of Gems 
had waited upon him, once a gay prince and now 
the holy hermit. Then again she bowed low. 

For catching and eating the peach which the 
princely guest had tossed to her, and thus breaking 
the rules of the palace, the Queen had ordered her 
banishment for a thousand years. 

But during all this time she had been seeking 
the prince who tossed her the peach of longevity; 
for she knew that neither she nor he could die, till 
the thousand years had passed. Yet none of the 
men she met, however handsome, learned or 
wealthy, reached her ideal of the youth she had 
seen so long ago. Not finding him, she went back 
to the Island of Gems, traveling on a dragon’s back, 
and humbly begged the Queen to extend her term 
of life, until she should meet the one she loved so 
dearly, even if she found him only after hundreds 
of years more of wandering and of hope deferred. 

The Mother Queen listened to her petition and 
was gracious and extended the maiden’s life. So 


100 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


on the earth she kept up her wanderings. Now, 
having met the holy hermit she was happy, for 
she felt sure that she had found the same prince, 
venerable in appearance though he was, for she 
could see his soul. 

The hermit listened with delight to the lady’s 
story of her life in the palace and of her wander- 
ings, during a thousand years in search of one she 
loved; and, especially, that she had been willing 
to have the Mother Queen order her future. 

As for the hermit, his long white beard which 
swept his breast fell off, his bald head was in a 
moment covered with luxuriant black hair, and 
he became young again in her presence, with 
springing step and bright eyes. He could not be 
more rosy in countenance, for the pure life he had 
led had kept his skin pink. They spent many hours 
together, in talking long and joyfully over their 
experiences in the Island of Gems. 

Then both agreed that now, since they had met 
again, they would bow gladly to the Queen’s de- 
cision concerning them both, and do whatever 
Her Majesty ordered. 

But already by a flying dragon that was famous 
for gathering up news from all parts of the uni- 
verse, the Queen had been told of the meeting of 
the lovers in the mountain path, and of their pious 
resolve to commit their future to Her Majesty in 
the Island of Gems. 


THE MAGIC PEACH 


101 


Suddenly the pair of lovers heard near the moun- 
tain top a sound of sweet music, as of some fairy 
playing on a lute, and at every second the sounds 
seemed to come lower and nearer. Soon a great 
white cloud of sweet smelling odors, like incense, 
enveloped them. What was their surprise to see a 
golden chariot drawn by two dragons, whose eyes 
were like emeralds, come up close to where they 
stood. Both of them, prince-hermit and maid were 
then taken up into the chariot and borne swiftly 
over cloud, and mountain and sea, to the Island 
of Gems. There the Queen ordered them to be 
married, and, after a splendid wedding, they lived 
happily ever after. 


THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 


GES ago, there lived a great Fire Spirit 



inside of a mountain to the southwest of 


-*• Seoul, the capital of Korea. He was al- 
ways hungry and his food was anything that would 
burn. He devoured trees, forests, dry grass, wood, 
and whatever he could get hold of. When those 
were not within his reach, he ate stones and rocks. 
He enjoyed the flames, but threw the hard stuff 
out of his mouth in the form of lava. 

This Fire Monster spent most of his time in a 
huge volcano some distance away, but in sight 
of the capital. The city people used to watch the 
smoke coming out of the crater by day and issuing 
in red fire, between sunset and sunrise, until all 
the heavens seemed in flames. Then, they said, the 
Fire Spirit was lighting up his palace. On cloudy 
nights the inside of the volcano glowed like a fur- 
nace. The moulten mass inside the crater was re- 
flected on the clouds, so that one could almost see 
into the monster’s belly. 

But nothing tasted so good to the Fire Eater 
as things which men built, such as houses, stables, 


102 


THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 103 


fences, and general property. An especial titbit, 
that he longed to swallow, was the royal palace. 

Looking out of its crater one day, he saw the 
king’s palace all silver bright and brand new, ris- 
ing in the City of Seoul. Thereupon he chuckled, 
and said to himself, for he was very happy: 

“ There’s a feast for me! I’ll just walk out of 
my mountain home and eat up that dainty morsel. 
I wonder how the king will like it.” 

But the Fire Spirit was in no hurry. He felt 
sure of his meal. So he waited until his friend, 
the South Wind, was prepared to join him. 

“ Let me know when you’re ready,” said the 
Fire Spirit to the South Wind, “and we’ll have a 
splendid blaze. We’ll go up at night and enjoy a 
lively dance before they can get a drop of water 
on us. Don’t let the rain-clouds know anything 
about our picnic.” 

The South Wind promised easily, for she was 
always glad to have a frolic. 

So when the sun went down and it was dark, the 
Fire Spirit climbed out of his rocky home in the 
volcano and strode toward Seoul. The South Wind 
pranced and capered with him until the streets of 
the capital were so gusty that no one with a wide- 
brimmed hat dared go outdoors, lest, in a lively 
puff, he might lose his head-gear. As for the men 
in mourning, who wear straw hats a yardstick wide 
and as big and deep as wash-tubs, they locked 


104 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


themselves up at home and played checkers. By 
the time all the palace guards were asleep the Fire 
Spirit was ready. He said to the South Wind: 

“ Blow, blow, your biggest blast, as I begin to 
touch the roofs of the smaller houses. This will 
whet my appetite for the palace, and then to- 
gether we’ll eat them all up.” 

Not till they heard a mighty roar and crack- 
ling did the people in Seoul push back their paper 
windows to find out what was the matter. Oh. 
what a blaze ! It seemed to mount to heaven with 
red tongues that licked the stars. Those who could 
see in the direction of the palace supposed the 
sun had risen, but soon the crash of falling roofs 
and mighty columns of smoke and flame, with 
clouds of sparks, told the terrible story. By the 
time the sun did rise, there was nothing but a level 
waste of ashes, where the large buildings had been. 
Even the smoke had been driven away by the 
wind. 

When the king and his people in the palace en- 
closure, who had saved their lives by running fast, 
thought over their loss, they began to plan how 
to stop the Fire Monster, when he should take it 
into his head to saunter forth on another walk 
and gobble up the king’s dwelling. 

A council of wise men was called to decide upon 
the question. Many long heads were bowed in 
hard thought over the matter. All the firemen, 


THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 105 


stone-cutters, fortune-tellers, dragon tamers, 
geomancers and people skilled in preventing con- 
flagrations were invited to give their advice about 
the best way to fight the hungry Fire Demon. 

After weeks spent in pondering the problem 
they all agreed that a dragon from China should 
be brought over to Korea. If kept in a swamp 
and fed well, he would surely prevent the Fire Imp 
from rambling too near Seoul. Besides, the dragon 
knew how to amuse and persuade the South Wind 
not to join in the mischief. 

So, at tremendous cost and trouble, one of 
China’s biggest dragons, capable of making rain 
and of spouting tons of water on its enemies, was 
shipped over and kept in a swamp. It was honored 
with a royal decoration, allowed to wear a string 
of amber beads over its ear, given a horsehair hat, 
a nobleman’s girdle and fed all the turnips it de- 
sired to eat. In every way it was treated as the 
king’s favorite. 

But it was all in vain. Money and favor were 
alike wasted. The petted dragon made it rain 
too often, so that the land was soaked. Then 
when told not to do this, it grew sulky and neg- 
lected its duty. Finally it became fat and lazy 
and one night fell asleep when it ought to have 
been on guard, for the winds were out on a dance. 

Seeing his jailer thus caught napping, the Fire 
Imp leaped out of its volcano prison, rode quickly 


106 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


on the South Wind to Seoul and in a few hours 
had again swallowed the royal palace. There was 
nothing seen next day except ashes, which the 
Fire Monster cared no more for than we for nut- 
shells when the kernels are eaten up. 

With big tears in their eyes, the king and his 
wise men met together again to decide on a new 
scheme to keep off the Fire Imp. They were ready 
to drown him, or to see him get eaten up, because 
he had twice swallowed up the palace. They sent 
the Chinese dragon home and this time, besides 
the fortune-tellers and the stone cutters, the well- 
diggers were invited also. For many days the wise 
men studied maps, talked of geography, looked at 
mountains, valleys, and the volcano, and studied 
air currents. Finally one man, famous for his deep 
learning about wood and water, forests and rivers, 
spoke thus: 

“It is evident that the fire has always come 
from the southwest and up this valley,” pointing 
to a map. 

“ True, true,” shouted all the wise men. 

“ Well, right in his path let us dig a big pond, 
a regular artificial lake and very deep, into which 
the Fire Monster will tumble. This will put him 
out and he can get no further.” 

“ Agreed, agreed,” shouted the wise men in 
chorus. “Why did we not think of this before?” 

All the skilful diggers of wells and ditches were 


THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 107 


summoned to the capital. With shovel and spade 
they worked for weeks. Then they let in water 
from the river until the pond was full. 

So everybody in Seoul went to bed thinking that 
the king’s palace was now safe surely. 

But the Fire Imp, seeing the dragon gone and 
his opportunity come, climbed out of his volcano 
and moved out for another meal. This time, the 
South Wind was busy elsewhere and could not 
go with him. So he went alone, but coming to the 
pond, tumbled and wet himself so badly that he 
was chilled and nearly put out when he got to the 
palace, which was only half burned. So he went 
home growling and hungry. 

Again the wise men were called and the first 
thing they did was to thank the boss well-digger, 
who had made the pond. The king summoned him 
into his presence to confer rank upon him and his 
children. He was presented with four rolls of silk, 
forty pounds of white ginseng, a tiger-skin robe, 
sixty dried chestnuts and forty-four strings of 
copper cash. Loaded with such Korean wealth and 
honors, the man fell on his hands and knees and 
thanked His Majesty profusely. 

Then they called the master stone-cutter or 
chief of the guild and asked him if he could chisel 
out the figure of a beast that could eat flames and 
be ugly enough to scare away the Fire Imp. 

The master had long hoped that he would be 


108 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


invited to rear this bit of sculpture, but hitherto 
the king and Court had feared it might cost too 
much. 

So the order was given, and out of the heart of 
the mountains, a mighty block of white granite 
was loosed and brought to Seoul on rollers, pushed, 
pulled, and hoisted by thousands of laborers. 
Then, hidden behind canvas, to keep the matter 
secret, lest the Fire Imp should find it out, the 
workmen toiled. Hammers and chisels clinked, 
until on a certain day the Great Stone Flame Eater 
was ready to take his permanent seat in front of 
the palace gate, as guardian of the royal buildings 
and treasures. 

The Fire Imp laughed when the South Wind 
told him of what the Koreans in the capital were 
doing, even though she warned him of the danger 
of his being eaten up. 

“ I shall walk out and see for myself anyhow,” 
said the Fire Imp. 

One night he crept out quietly and moved 
toward the city. He was nearly drowned in the 
pond, but plucking up courage, he went on until he 
was near the king’s dwelling. Hearing the Fire Imp 
coming, the Great Flame Eater turned his head 
and licked his chops in anticipation of swallowing 
the Fire Imp whole, as a toad does a fly. 

But one sight of the hideous stony monster was 
enough for the Fire Imp. There, before him, on 


THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 109 


a high pedestal was something never before seen 
in heaven or on earth. It had enormous fire-proof 
scales like a salamander, with curly hair like 
asbestos and its mouth was full of big fangs. It 
was altogether hideous enough to give even a Vol- 
cano Spirit a chill. 

“ Just think of those jaws snapping on me,” 
said the Fire Imp to himself, as he looked at them 
and the fangs. “I do believe that creature is half 
alligator and half water- tortoise. I had better go 
home. No dinner this time!” 

So by his freezing glance alone, the Great Flame 
Eater frightened away the Fire Imp, so that he 
never came again and the royal palace was not 
once burned. To-day the ugly brute still keeps 
watch. You have only to look at him to enjoy this 
story. 


PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 

P EAR BLOSSOM had been the name of a 
little Korean maid who was suddenly left 
motherless. When her father, Kang Wa, 
who was a magistrate high in office, married again, 
he took for his wife a proud widow whose daugh- 
ter, born to Kang Wa, was named Violet. Mother 
and daughter hated housework and made Pear 
Blossom clean the rice, cook the food and attend 
to the fire in the kitchen. They were hateful in 
their treatment of Pear Blossom, and, besides 
never speaking a kind word, called her Pigling, 
or Little Pig, which made the girl weep often. 

It did no good to complain to her father, for he 
was always busy. He smoked his yard-long pipe 
and played checkers hour by hour, apparently 
caring more about having his great white coat 
properly starched and lustred than for his daugh- 
ter to be happy. His linen had to be beaten with 
a laundry club until it glistened like hoar frost, 
and, except his wide-brimmed black horsehair hat, 
he looked immaculately white when he went out 
of the house to the Government office. 


no 



She heard a whir and a rush of wings. 


% 









































































PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 111 


Poor Pigling had to perform this task of wash- 
ing, starching and glossing, in addition to the 
kitchen work and the rat-tat-tat of her laundry 
stick was often heard in the outer room till after 
midnight, when her heartless stepsister and mother 
had long been asleep. 

There was to be a great festival in the city and 
for many days preparations were made in the house 
to get the father ready in his best robe and hat, 
and the women in their finery, to go out and see 
the king and the royal procession. 

Poor Pigling wanted very much to have a look 
at the pageant, but the cruel stepmother, setting 
before her a huge straw bag of unhulled rice and 
a big cracked water jar, told her she must husk 
all the rice, and, drawing water from the well, fill 
the crock to the brim before she dared to go out on 
the street. 

What a task to hull with her fingers three 
bushels of rice and fill up a leaky vessel! Pigling 
wept bitterly. How could it ever be done? 

While she was brooding thus and opening the 
straw bag to begin spreading the rice out on mats, 
she heard a whir and a rush of wings and down 
came a flock of pigeons. They first lighted on her 
head and shoulders, and then hopping to the floor 
began diligently, with beak and claw, and in a few 
minutes the rice lay in a heap, clean, white, and 
glistening, while with their pink toes they pulled 


112 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


away the hulls and put these in a separate pile. 

Then, after a great chattering and cooing, the 
flock was off and away. 

Pigling was so amazed at this wonderful work 
of the birds that she scarcely knew how to be 
thankful enough. But, alas, there was still the 
cracked crock to be filled. Just as she took hold 
of the bucket to begin there crawled out of the 
fire hole a sooty black imp, named Tokgabi. 

“ Don’t cry,” he squeaked out. “Ill mend the 
broken part and fill the big jar for you.” Forth- 
with, he stopped up the crack with clay, and pour- 
ing a dozen buckets of water from the well into 
the crock, it was filled to brimming and the water 
spilled over on all sides. Then Tokgabi the imp 
bowed and crawled into the flues again, before 
the astonished girl could thank her helper. 

So Pigling had time to dress in her plain but 
clean clothes that were snow-white. She went off 
and saw the royal banners and the king’s grand 
procession of thousands of loyal men. 

The next time, the stepmother and her favor- 
ite daughter planned a picnic on the mountain. 
So the refreshments were prepared and Pigling 
had to work hard in starching the dresses to be 
worn — jackets, long skirts, belts, sashes, and what 
not, until she nearly dropped with fatigue. Yet 
instead of thanking and cheering her, the cruel 
stepmother told Pigling she must not go out until 


PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 113 


she had hoed all the weeds out of the garden and 
pulled up all the grass between the stones of the 
walk. 

Again the poor girl’s face was wet with tears. 
She was left at home alone, while the others went 
off in fine clothes, with plenty to eat and drink, 
for a day of merrymaking. 

While weeping thus, a huge black cow came 
along and out of its great liquid eyes seemed to 
beam compassion upon the kitchen slave. Then, 
in ten mouthfuls, the animal ate up the weeds, 
and, between its hoof and lips, soon made an end 
of the grass in the stone pathway. 

With her tears dried Pigling followed this won- 
derful brute out over the meadows into the woods, 
where she found the most delicious fruit her eyes 
ever rested upon. She tasted and enjoyed, feasting 
to the full and then returned home. 

When the jealous stepsister heard of the aston- 
ishing doings of the black cow, she determined to 
enjoy a feast in the forest also. So on the next 
gala-day she stayed home and let the kitchen 
drudge go to see the royal parade. Pigling could 
not understand why she was excused, even for a 
few hours, from the pots and kettles, but she was 
still more surprised by the gift from her stepmother 
of a rope of cash to spend for dainties. Gratefully 
thankfiig the woman, she put on her best clothes 
and was soon on the main street of the city enjoy- 


114 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


ing the gay sights and looking at the happy peo- 
ple. There were tight rope dancing, music with 
drum and flute by bands of strolling players, tricks 
by conjurers and mountebanks, with mimicking 
and castanets, posturing by the singing girls and 
fun of all sorts. Boys peddling honey candy, barley 
sugar and sweetmeats were out by the dozen. At 
the eating-house, Pigling had a good dinner of 
fried fish, boiled rice with red peppers, turnips, 
dried persimmons, roasted chestnuts and candied 
orange, and felt as happy as a queen. 

The selfish stepsister had stayed home, not to 
relieve Pigling of work, but to see the wonderful 
cow. So, when the black animal appeared and 
found its friend gone and with nothing to do, it 
went off into the forest. 

The stepsister at once followed in the tracks of 
the cow but the animal took it into its head to go 
very fast, and into unpleasant places. Soon the 
girl found herself in a swamp, wet, miry and full 
of brambles. Still hoping for wonderful fruit, she 
kept on until she was tired out and the cow was 
no longer to be seen. Then, muddy and bedrag- 
gled, she tried to go back, but the thorny bushes 
tore her clothes, spoiled her hands and so scratched 
her face that when at last, nearly dead, she got 
home, she was in rags and her beauty was gone. 

But Pigling, rosy and round, looked so lovely 
that a young man from the south, of good family 


PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 115 


and at that time visiting the capital, was struck 
with her beauty. And as he wanted a wife, he 
immediately sought to find out where she lived. 
Then he secured a go-between who visited both 
families and made all the arrangements for the be- 
trothal and marriage. 

Grand was the wedding. The groom, Su-wen, 
was dressed in white and black silk robes, with 
a rich horsehair cap and head-dress denoting his 
rank as a Yang-ban, or gentleman. On his breast, 
crossed by a silver-studded girdle, was a golden 
square embroidered with flying cranes rising above 
the waves — the symbols of civil office. He was tall, 
handsome, richly cultured, and quite famous as a 
writer of verses, besides being well read in the 
classics. 

Charming, indeed, looked Pear Blossom as she 
was now called again, in her robe of brocade, and 
long undersleeves which extended from her inner 
dress of snow-white silk. Dainty were her red kid 
shoes curved upward at the toes. With a baldric 
of open-worked silver, a high-waisted long skirt, 
with several linings of her inner silk robes showing 
prettily at the neck, and the silver bridal ring on 
her finger, she looked as lovely as a princess. 

Besides her bridal dower, her father asked Pear 
Blossom what she preferred as a special present. 
When she told him, he laughed heartily. Never- 
theless he fulfilled her wishes and to this day, in 


116 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


the boudoir of Pear Blossom, now Mrs. Su-wen, 
there stands an earthen figure of a black cow 
moulded and baked from the clay of her home 
province, while the pigeons like to hover about a 
pear tree that bursts into bloom every spring time 
and sheds on the ground a snowy shower of fra- 
grant petals. 


THE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE 


HE city of Seoul lies near the Han river, 



which flows all the way across Korea 


from the high mountains to the level sea. 
To most Korean people, in the old days when no 
one traveled abroad, Seoul was the center of the 
universe. 

All roads in the kingdom led to this wonderful 
city, in which there were big shops and stores, and 
gay streets full of lively people in rich clothing. 
The gentlemen in their stiffly starched and glisten- 
ing white clothes walked very proudly with their 
heads up in the air. When they straddled the little 
Korean ponies, which are not much bigger than 
Newfoundland dogs, it seemed as if elephants were 
trying to ride on donkeys. 

From morning to night the avenues were full 
of traffic and business. All the wonderful things 
brought by the Arabs from India, and by the mer- 
chants from Japan and China, could be bought in 
the Korean capital. 

A thousand bulls loaded with dry grass and fire- 
wood came through the city gates into Seoul every 


117 


118 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


day. They could be seen passing along, but not 
much besides legs, tail and horns were visible. At 
breakfast and supper time clouds of blue smoke 
rose up from ten thousand low, and often under- 
ground chimneys, carrying the heat and fire from 
the kitchens, where good things to eat were cooked. 
The cartloads of bags of rice, millet, barley, fruits 
and vegetables, goodies and cookies, jars and crock- 
ery, seen in the shops, would make a mountain. 

Palaces, pagodas, temples and mansions of the 
nobles and wealthy people made the place in which 
the king lived very beautiful, while out beyond 
were the high stone city walls, white or covered 
with vines. 

When the sun dipped below the mountains the 
gates were shut, and after that no one could enter 
until morning. At every closing and opening of 
the gates the musicians played lively tunes and 
the great bell tolled out the time of sunrise and 
sunset. In the band were drums, fifes, trumpets 
and stringed instruments. 

At night from inside the house and wineshops, 
one could hear the sounds of revelry, music, song, 
dancing and feasting, which often lasted till 
morning. 

Out on the Great South Mountain, a mighty x 
fire burned and the flames shot high up in the air. 
This was the welcome message that all was peace- 
ful throughout the whole kingdom. On hilltop and 


THE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE 119 


mountain, from the snowy peaks of the Ever 
White Mountain to the islands out in the South- 
ern Sea, and from the east to the west coast, these 
signal fires blaze. Flame answering flame made a 
telegraph announcing that all was well. 

But at nine o’clock Seoul outdoors was a wo- 
man’s city. All boys and men must be off the 
streets. Any male person caught by the police 
would be taken to the magistrate’s office and there 
receive a severe beating with wooden paddles by 
the public spankers. Then the women and grown- 
up girls, old and young, went outdoors, breathed 
the air, took their walks, made their visits, and 
had a delightful time with play and chat and gos- 
sip. But by midnight every one must be indoors. 

It was no wonder then that in the country the 
farmers and the village folk thought that Seoul, 
the capital, was the most splendid city on earth. 
If they ever heard of London and Paris and New 
York, they supposed that these places on the map 
were only villages. How was it possible that any 
city could equal or surpass Seoul? Why, the very 
idea was nonsense! 

In every hamlet even the children hoped some 
day to see the city. Often they dreamed of riding 
through the air on a dragon’s back in order to get 
there. It was thought that anything which a mor- 
tal man or even the insatiable Tokgabi should re- 
quire, could be bought in Seoul. 


120 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Now in a village up north, which in English we 
should call Cucumberville, lived a miller, Mr. Kim 
and his wife Cho. The man had worked hard for 
many years and heaped up piles of iron and brass 
cash, which he kept hidden under a rafter beneath 
the roof. He had long intended to see the royal 
city, and his wife encouraged him, for she wanted 
a new dress, and a comb and a pair of shoes, such 
as city people wear. His daughters said they would 
like to have girdles, ermine-trimmed slippers and 
silver hair pins. Kim felt that he must surely go, 
to please both himself and his family. 

So one fine May morning he started off to walk to 
Seoul and see the sights. His wife and daughters, 
bowing down with their faces to the paper carpet, 
begged him to bring them the pretty things they 
talked about so much, and also whatever might 
please himself. 

His faithful spouse bade him beware of thieves 
and robbers and not to let his money lie around 
loose in the inns by the way. When in Seoul he 
must not go into the wineshops, or to see the danc- 
ing girls called ge-sang (or geisha), or to spend 
his cash foolishly. There were many wicked men 
about and she had heard that beside the polite peo- 
ple there were boors even in the capital. This she 
thought must surely be the fact, for there was a 
proverb that said so. 

On his part Kim cautioned his wife, since it was 


THE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE 121 


still chilly weather, to keep the kitchen fires burn- 
ing, so as to have the house warm and not let the 
girls take cold. She must beware also of robbers. 
These bad men had the habit of coming after mid- 
night, when the fire was out, and of quietly loosen- 
ing the stones of the foundations under the floor 
and getting inside, and also into the rooms through 
the flues. The house must be well locked up and 
the door barricaded at night, so that no prowling 
leopard or tiger roaming around should get in. 
If she heard any scratching or clawing on the roof, 
she was to strike the gong. This would alarm the 
villagers, and then the men would rush out with 
torches and drive off the beasts of prey. If she 
should hear the pigs squealing out in the pen, she 
must sound the alarm for the tigers loved Korean 
pork even more than Korean people. 

Now Kim was a first-rate fellow. When at home 
he was pretty sharp at a bargain while buying 
beans, millet or rice, and was skilful in grinding 
barley or chopping up straw for the donkeys. 
But when he was once inside the walls of the big 
city, one would think “he carried his head under 
his armpits,” as the Koreans say. 

For amid so many strange sights and sounds 
he was dazed. Like a great gawk he stood on the 
main street, with his mouth open. As the crowds 
went by, he wondered where all the people came 
from, and how they all got a living. 


122 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


He found the saying true that “There are rude 
people, even in Seoul,” for one fellow shouted at 
him asking him whether he intended to swallow the 
moon. Some of the boys laughed at him and one 
said his mouth was like a bird box, and something 
might fly in. 

Kim looked at many things in the shops, but 
when he asked how much they cost he nearly 
fainted. He was truly scared at the price, and 
walked on. However, he bought some pretty things 
for his wife and daughters, such as a fan, a roll of 
silk for a dress, a box of hairpins, some amber 
beads, and a silver ring, so that when his oldest 
daughter, who was soon to marry, became a bride, 
she would have everything ready. 

While in the silk shop the clerk who sold him 
the goods saw that Kim was from the country and 
thought he would have a little fun. So he told 
Kim about the fairies, and pointed out a shop 
across the way. There, if he looked at the round 
thing which the shop man would gladly show him, 
he would see and feel as he never felt or saw 
before. 

At once Kim went across the street and over to 
the shop, where they made metal things, bright, 
shining, polished and silvery. There he stood in 
front of a round thing like the moon. In it was a 
man’s face. It was the face of some one he thought 
he knew. It was a man about his own age he fan- 


THE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE 123 


cied, yet he could not tell just who it was or call 
him by name, but he was sure he had seen the per- 
son before. When he turned around suddenly, hop- 
ing to surprise a friend, and perhaps a neighbor, 
from his home town, there was nobody near. He 
looked again. There it was! Had his friend hid 
himself and then come back? 

When Kim dodged he lost sight of the face, but 
when standing in front of this round thing, there 
was the same man again in the mirror, for that is 
what the shining metal was. 

When Kim laughed the fellow laughed too. 
When he made a wry face or grimaces, the other 
person, whoever he was, did the same. No matter 
how quickly Kim might turn around to catch him, 
he was gone. 

Now Kim had never before seen a mirror and 
did not know what it might be. Yet thinking it 
was almost like fairy magic, he bought the metal 
disc and took it back with him. 

When he arrived home he must first of all un- 
pack the boxes containing the pretty things for 
the women of his family, for the girls were impa- 
tient to see what their father had brought them. 

They were so absorbed in their gifts that they 
did not notice what Mr. Kim had bought for him- 
self. So he laid the case containing the mirror on 
the table and put some other purchases away in 
the big cabinet, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, that 


124 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


stood in the best room. Then he went out to look 

after his mill, and the pigs, the donkey, and the 
bull. 

No sooner had the girls opened the mirror case, 
than terrible things happened. The mother, who 
was behind the daughter, saw the face of a young 
woman and was startled at beholding a stranger, 
as she thought, in her house. Instantly she broke 
out in a fit of jealous passion. 

“ Your father has brought home another woman, 
a ge-sang, from Seoul, to take my place. What 
does he mean?” 

At the same time the daughter, seeing a face in 
the polished metal, cried out, “No mother, we 
won’t have any strange woman in your place. 
Besides she’s too young and will be a tyrant to 
us.” 

Hearing the loud voices and crying, the grand- 
mother hobbled in and asked what was the matter. 

“ Look, see for yourself, what our daddy has 
brought home to us to make us miserable.” 

Seeing the mirror, Granny looked into it for a 
moment. Then she too burst into a passion, and 
cried out, “I won’t have this old woman in our 
house. It’s enough for my son to support me and 
his family. Oh, why did he go to Seoul?” n 

By this time there was such a racket with four 
women, young, middle-aged, and old, crying so 
lustily, that each one quickly used up three paper 


THE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE 125 


handkerchiefs apiece, before they could dry their 
tears. 

While still crying out, “ugo, ugo!” very loudly, 
grandfather came in, shaking his stick and order- 
ing them to be quiet. Then, looking at their 
streaming faces and dropping tears, he demanded 
to know the cause of the trouble. 

“ See for yourself,” said his wife. Then she 
handed him the metal trouble-maker, such as had 
never before been seen in the village. 

At once the old man turned almost purple with 
rage. 

“ What,” cried he in his cracked voice, “is my 
son so unfilial as to bring another old man into 
the house? How can he support two fathers? 
Where will he get the kimchi and millet for the 
old fellow to eat?” Then he threw the mirror into 
its box and slammed down the lid tight. 

All this time while jealousy was eating up these 
angry people and threatening to disrupt the fam- 
ily, the noise increased so greatly, that the hus- 
band left his pigs and his mill, and rushed in to 
see what was the matter. 

At once his wife, who was a very strong woman, 
flew at him, and seizing his topknot, pulled him 
and dragged him over the floor and outdoors, and 
along into the street, never stopping till she 
reached the house of the judge to tell her troubles. 
There she made out a terrible story. 


126 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Once in the presence of the great man who wore 
a mighty hat and had a string of amber beads 
hung over his ear, she told the story of what her 
husband had brought from Seoul, to destroy the 
peace of his family. Surely, he meant to go back 
to the capital and have a young wife! In her 
anger her tongue never stopped a moment. 

She charged her husband with all the crimes 
known in the codes. Yet all that she could prove 
against him was that he had brought something 
round, made of metal, into the house. She assured 
the judge that it was as full of evil magic as Tok- 
gabi and all his imps. 

Now the other members of the family joined in 
accusation of the miller. Besides supporting the 
wife’s story, they all declared that it was true in 
every detail; because the five witnesses all agreed 
in their story. 

When the flood of talk had subsided somewhat, 
the judge, who meanwhile had kept on smoking a 
brass-bowled pipe, the stem of which was a yard 
long, while the bowl was only as big as a chestnut, 
asked, 

“ In what form did you say this evil magic 
came?” \ 

At this, the miller’s old father produced the box, 
opened it, and handed the metal mirror to the 
judge, who had never before seen anything like 
it. In fact, he had never been out of his district 


THE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE 127 


except once, when he went to the examinations, 
years before, in Seoul. Even then he was so much 
with his fellow students and so long shut up in his 
little cell writing out his essays that he saw hardly 
anything of the city. 

When he held up the mirror before his eyes he 
suddenly became like a demon in his rage, and 
behaved just like the other people in the court- 
room. 

On the face of the round thing which he held 
in his hand he saw a man in official robes, such as 
only men of eminence wear. He had on his head 
a high round hat, like those which only magistrates 
ever put on, while on his right ear hung a string of 
twenty-eight big round amber beads. 

WTien he held the mirror down in front of him 
he discerned also the embroidered breastpiece, and 
the little silver stork, that served to hold together 
the folds of a judge’s coat of office, while around 
his waist was a decorated girdle. 

All this made him almost choke with anger, at 
the idea that another magistrate should come into 
the village of Cucumberville, to take his place. 

What should he himself do for a salary? If he 
lost his position how would he support his old par- 
ents and his twenty-five poor relations. He saw 
himself a pauper in his old age. 

Speechless with rage there was silence in the 
court-room for at least half a minute. Even the 


128 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


women’s tongues did not wag. All looked at each 
other to see what would come next. 

But the peace lasted no longer than thirty sec- 
onds, for the storm broke out again in full force 
when the jealous wife seized her husband by his 
topknot to drag him home. She feared that the 
magistrate was himself so angry and jealous, that 
he might adjourn the court. 

Just when the hullaballoo was at its height, a 
messenger rushed into the court-room, to announce 
that the royal inspector direct from the king was 
on his travels of observation in the province. With- 
in five minutes he would be at the gate of the 
court house. 

Instantly the jealous wife let go her husband’s 
topknot. The magistrate called for order and 
posted his under officers in their places, according 
to the etiquette of welcoming the king’s agents. 
Then the magistrate adjusting his hat and top- 
knot which had been badly tumbled in his passion 
went out to greet his worship, the Royal In- 
spector. Salutations over, he waved his hand to 
his superior to take to the chief seat of honor. 

As soon as all formalities were over, the high 
officer inquired into the cause of the troubles and 
into the merits of the case. 

The local magistrate put the mirror on a silken 
cushion and handed both to his highness, the in- 
spector, saying: 


THE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE 129 


“ Please, your worship, it is this that has turned 
us all into devils of jealousy. What is it?” 

Then this gentleman from the capital, who was 
every day accustomed to the comforts and con- 
veniences of the great city and the splendor of the 
palace, explained what a mirror was. He gave 
them all a mild scolding for their folly and dis- 
missed them, telling them that whenever he or 
she felt angry, or jealous, to go out and pull the 
tops off five turnips; or, to drink slowly a cup of 
rice water before speaking an angry word. 

Thereupon, the miller’s wife fell on her face and 
begged pardon of her husband. Then, all the fam- 
ily, young and old, while walking home, laughed 
heartily at their mistakes. 

When a Korean begins to laugh, it is sometimes 
hard for him to stop; but after half an hour, all 
was quiet again. After that, nearly every one who 
could afford it bought a mirror. All the girls in 
the village, sooner or later, possessed one. 

They used to look into its face so often to see 
their own, that the oiled-paper carpet fronting the 
mirror was, in many houses, soon worn out. 

In Seoul, the mirror-makers wondered what 
had happened in Cucumberville, the village, so 
long famous only for its cucumbers, but they 
slapped their thighs for joy and grew rich. 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


HE fairies in the Korean province of 



Kang Wen, which means River Meadow, 


were having great fun, when one of their 
number told how they played a trick on an ox- 
driver whom they called Old Timber Top. How 
he got such a strange name this story will tell. 

This driver was a rich and stingy fellow who 
had made a fortune in lumber. He used to buy 
up all the trees he could. Then he would have 
them cut down and sawed up into logs and boards. 
His men would haul them away in their rough 
carts, drawn by stout bulls, to his lumber yard. 
In winter time sleds were used, but whether it was 
the season of snow and ice, or of tree blossoms and 
flowers, the animal used to draw sleds or carts 
was always a bull. 

For in Korea, horses or donkeys do not know 
how to pull anything. The ponies and donkeys 
are too small. Not being used to the work, if har- 
nessed they would kick the wagon all to pieces. 

They can carry loads on their backs, but the 
bulls can do this also, so the creature with horns 


130 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


131 


is considered to be the most valuable of beasts 
of burden. Besides, he fills the purse and makes 
good dinners when his owner is through with him. 

You can see these patient carriers loaded with 
brushwood or sticks piled so high they seem to be 
carrying small mountains of twigs, grass and leaves 
for kindlings, or with heavy logs of wood for fuel. 
Yet when the bull is very young, a mere baby, he 
has a happier time than a colt or little donkey, 
for he lives in the house and is the children’s pet. 

Old Timber Top sold his logs and boards at such 
high prices that the poor suffered. This was be- 
cause they were cold and could not afford to pay 
so many strings of cash for fuel. The people used 
to say that the old fellow would skin a mosquito 
for his hide and tallow. So sometimes they gave 
him the nickname of Skin-flay. 

Not many of the villagers were able to buy 
planks of wood thick and heavy and strong enough 
to keep their pigs from the tigers, which came 
down from the mountains and prowled about at 
night in the villages. These long-haired and black- 
striped beasts got to be so fond of pork, that even 
in the snow they would, without fearing the cold 
or the guns of the hunters, claw up the tops of 
the pens and get down among the squealing prey. 
They might get a baby pig at once or perhaps drag 
out and carry off enough of a big pork to feed their 
cubs for a week. All the stables and cow-houses 


132 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


had to be made very strong, for the tigers, when 
they had gone a good while without food, seemed 
to be hungry enough to eat a horse with all his 
harness on, and even a grown-up cow or ox. Yet 
as a rule, no tiger cared to taste either beef or 
horse meat, if he could get young pork or veal. 

Old Timber Top was not satisfied to make money 
at his lumber yard only. It is the custom in Korea 
to plant the most beautiful trees around tombs 
or in the cemeteries. When this skin-flint heard of 
a family which had become so poor that they must 
needs sell the splendid trees which had been 
planted around their ancestors’ graves he sent his 
agents to buy the timber. These fellows would 
load up a horse with long ropes, of copper and 
iron cash, coins that had a square hole in the middle 
and were strung together with twine made of 
twisted straw. It was a heavy horse load to carry 
twenty dollars’ worth of coin. Arrived on the spot, 
after beating the owner down to the lowest price 
possible, Old Timber Top’s men would go out, 
chop down and saw up the grand trees, leaving 
only the sawdust on the graves, while the people 
wept to lose what they loved. 

In this way the landscape was spoiled and this 
made many villagers very angry at such a man, for 
the Koreans love natural scenery and almost wor- 
ship fine trees, which had made the country beau- 
tiful for centuries. 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


133 


But what cared Old Timber Top, provided he 
could pile up his strings of cash and jingle his 
silver? 

In time, this hard old fellow could think of noth- 
ing else but how to get richer out of the wants and 
sufferings of other people. The wealthier he be- 
came, the more he wanted. Yet he did not get any 
happier. Nobody loved him, while many hated 
him. 

At last he thought he would make a trip to Seoul, 
the great capital city, which every Korean hopes 
to see sometime. There he expected to re- 
ceive honor and appointment to rank and office. 
Timber Top had a relative who was high in the 
king’s service, who, he thought, would assist him; 
for all Koreans are kind and helpful to each other, 
especially when they are related. 

To be an officer Timber Top knew would per- 
mit him, even to wear a gorgeously shining man- 
darin’s hat with wide flaps or wings on it and a 
long white silk coat with a big square on the breast 
of velvet or satin, embroidered with storks or 
dragons, clouds and waves. When he went 
out on the streets he could strut about, as if he 
were the lord of the universe; for he would then 
wear a hat so high and with such a round wide 
brim, that he would not dare to go out during a 
high wind, for fear of being blown away, like a 
ship in a tempest. In such a costume he would be 


134 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


saluted by servants and the common people, who 
would bow down before him, because they would 
think him a great man. 

But how could he win such a position and gain 
the glory of it? 

He was not a scholar, learned in books, or in 
law, or a doctor of medicine. Not being a soldier, 
either, he knew nothing of war. He could not ride 
on a monocycle, as a general did, drawn or pushed 
by four men and dressed in a long red coat studded 
all over with shining metal with a brass helmet 
on his head, on the top of which was a little dragon. 
He feared, even if he were appointed, he might 
fall off the one-wheeled vehicle and show what a 
fool he was. 

Nevertheless this old fellow was so vain and full 
of conceit that he followed what was once the com- 
mon custom in Korea. He took his journey to 
Seoul, leaving his family behind him to live on the 
cheapest kind of kimchi, with turnips and millet. 

Now the Koreans are all famous for giving wel- 
come and showing hospitality to their poor rela- 
tions, and often they do this even to tramps and 
lazy people. When a man becomes rich or holds 
a high office, he usually has around him many 
hangers on. Some, we should even say, were 
loafers. 

So on arriving in Seoul, Old Timber Top took 
up his quarters in one part of his relative’s big 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


135 


house. There he lived a long time and was treated 
decently, for he always was saying soft things and 
making flattering speeches to his host. In fact, 
he bowed down like a slave when in presence of 
his august master. Yet, in truth, he was despised 
even by the servants and work people. 

In order not to wear his welcome entirely out 
he had to make from time to time a handsome 
present to his patron. This steadily reduced both 
his income and his fortune, and while these were 
shrinking his family at home suffered, so that, by 
and by, he received notice by letter that his busi- 
ness had dried up and soon no more money could 
be sent to him in Seoul. While he lingered news 
from home grew worse and worse. His wife was 
obliged to sell their house to pay debts. The next 
item was that she and her daughter were living in 
a wretched shanty at the end of the village and 
were no longer in society. 

All this time those in Seoul who knew that 
the foolish fellow was as ambitious as ever to wear 
the fine white clothes of a scholar, or the gay colors 
of a soldier, declared that Old Timber Top had no 
brains. They even jested about a pumpkin set on 
shoulders, or they laughed when they declared that 
the wood, which he had sold so long, had gone to 
his head. They debated in the wine shops whether, 
if his skull were opened, pumpkin seeds or timber 
would be found inside of it. 


136 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


So they, also, called him “Old Timber Top,” 
meaning that inside his skull was a wooden head 
and no better than that of an idol carved out of 
persimmon wood, such as were so plentiful in the 
Buddhist temples. Others declared that he had 
a real head of bone and brains, but “he carried 
it under his arm pits,” as the saying was. 

When the fairies heard all this, they unani- 
mously resolved to reform the old fellow, even if 
they had to make an ox of him. 

Timber Top, now poor and bankrupt, knew he 
must leave Seoul and go home and work for a liv- 
ing. When he made his final call on his rich Seoul 
relative and told him he must, to his great regret, 
take his leave and go back to his native village, he 
was not well received. Being too poor to buy a 
present to give to his host, on whose bounty he had 
lived so long, he was answered coldly and told to 
go and do as he liked. 

And this, after years of fawning and gift-mak- 
ing! Not a word of thanks or appreciation! Poor 
Timber Top was down in the mouth and his heart 
was cold in his bosom. He knocked on his head 
with his fists, to find out whether, after all, it had 
really turned into timber. 

On his way back, a big storm came on and when 
he came to a village inn, cold, wet and hungry, he 
begged for shelter over night. The woman who 
kept it was the wife of a butcher, who was then 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


137 


away from home. This was an awful blow to Tim- 
ber Top’s pride, for butchers were held to be the 
lowest of people, and they were not even allowed 
to wear hats, like the rest of the men in Korea. 

The woman was kind to the traveler. She gave 
him a hot supper and let him sleep in that room of 
the house which had the best stone floor, under 
which the flues from the kitchen fire ran. So he 
warmed himself and baked his clothes, which were 
sopping wet, until they were dry. He was so tired 
that he kept on sleeping till very late next morn- 
ing, and nearly to the noon hour. He was alto- 
gether so comfortable that to him it seemed as if 
he were a great man in the capital, thus to receive 
such kind treatment. 

Waking up from one of his naps, he heard what 
he thought was the big butcher, who had come 
home, asking of his wife in a gruff tone of voice, 
“Where is that ox? I must sell him this morning, 
for it is market day,” he said. 

In less than a minute more, the man and his 
wife entered the room with four sticks which the 
fairies had put there, a halter, and a rope, made 
of twisted rice straw, besides a thick iron ring, 
such as they put into bulls’ noses, to make them 
obey their masters. Throwing down the iron ring 
and rope on the floor, in a trice they had thrust 
the stick under Old Timber Top’s back. In a mo- 
ment more, he felt horns growing out of his head, 


138 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


and his lips becoming thick as sausages. His mouth 
was as wide as a saucer and had big teeth growing 
on the upper jaw. A tail sprouted at his other end 
and the four sticks became four legs. 

Before he could quite understand just what was 
going on, or what the matter could be, Old Timber 
Top was standing on four legs and the butcher was 
slipping the ring through his nose. Oh how it did 
hurt! 

It was an awkward job to get the animal out of 
the room and through the narrow door, and some 
of the paper on the walls and the furniture suf- 
fered. But finally when out in the open air the 
bull, that was no other than what had been the 
man Timber Top, went quietly along to the market 
place. Any attempt to pull his head away, or to 
stop or run off, or in any way to misbehave, hurt 
his nose so dreadfully, that he quickly quit. The 
butcher needed to give only a slight jerk of the 
rope when the bull changed his gait and was as 
quiet as a lamb, even though as an animal he was 
big enough to gore the man and toss him on its 
horns, or crush him by trampling on him with his 
hoofs, if once he got angry. 

One would have supposed that Timber Top 
would be a fighting bull, but no! In the market 
place he stood patiently and quietly for hours, 
hardly even stamping, when the flies began to bite. 

“ Oh that I had been as diligent and kept on at 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


139 


my honest occupation in my native village, as that 
fly!” mused the bull, that still had a man’s 
memory. 

At last there came a man with money to buy. 
He was a drover, who unloaded his pony and paid 
down many strings, or about twenty pounds, of 
copper and iron cash. The owner put the halter in 
the buyer’s hand, and the new master then led 
off Timber Top to be sold to a butcher who lived 
up in his home town in the north. This fellow in- 
tended first to fatten the animal and then turn 
him into steaks and stewing meat. 

But on his way the new owner thought that, 
because he had made a good bargain, he must stop 
at a wine shop and have a drink. So he tied Tim- 
ber Top’s nose with the rope to the low wall, which 
enclosed a turnip field, and went inside the shop. 

But while the drover’s wine went in his wits 
went out, and he fell asleep and stayed in the 
shop a long time. In fact, it was as the old song 
said: 

“ First the man takes a dram, 

Then the dram takes another dram; 

Then the dram takes the man. ” 

Meanwhile Timber Top looked over the low 
wall, and, yielding to temptation, pulled up with 
his teeth some of the plants by the roots, first 
chewing the green leaves and then grinding the 
turnips and swallowing them. 


140 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Presto! The horns drew in and shrivelled up. 
The ring dropped out of his nose and fell with a 
crash on the stones of the village path. His two 
forelegs turned into arms, the hair and hoofs be- 
came human legs and Old Timber Top was a man, 
and himself once again. To make sure of it he felt 
himself all over; pulled his own nose, felt around 
his back to see if he had a tail, and rubbed his head 
for horns. None there! He looked down and found 
he had only two legs. Then he swung his arms 
with delight, at being once more a man. 

“ Well named, Turn-up thou,” he mused, “thou 
green plant with a mustard-like taste. Thou hast 
turned me inside out. Or, have the fairies been 
busy?” 

He had hardly got these ideas through his half 
wooden head, that he was on two legs and a man 
once more and could think like one, than he started 
on the road home. Just then the drover rushed 
out of the wine shop and accosted him, saying: 

“ Have you seen a stray bull anywhere near 
this place?” 

Of course Timber Top using fine language, like 
a yang ban, said there was no bull in the neighbor- 
hood that he could see or knew of, and he had 
heard none bellowing. Then he gave the drover 
a look of contempt for being so stupid, and for 
asking of him, a gentleman, so foolish a question. 

Yet after he was out of sight of the drover he 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


141 


slapped his thighs, as Koreans do when they are 
amused at their own smartness, and went on joy- 
fully. He kept on repeating to himself, “sticks 
and turnips, turnips and sticks.” 

Then a big idea struck him, as if it were a tap 
on a wooden drum, such as one sees in Buddhist 
temples. It hit his brain so hard and so swelled 
his head, that his big Korean hat nearly toppled 
off. Immediately he put this idea into action. 

He returned hastily to the inn and into the 
room in which he had been turned into a bull and 
stole the butcher’s four fairy sticks, which stood 
in a corner, then he hied at once over the roads 
towards the capital. 

Reaching Seoul, he went to the house of his rich 
relative, where he had waited ten years for the 
fortune and the favor which did not come. Going 
into his host’s bedroom, he tapped the high lord 
of the house with the fairy sticks, not hard, but 
only lightly. 

Forthwith the man’s head became horns at the 
top, with muzzle of thick lips in front. His hands 
turned into front hoofs and his legs into the hind 
quarters of a bull. Yet he was not entirely an ox, 
but only half animal and half man. 

Old Timber Top stopped tapping and then went 
away, to await events, leaving the creature half 
man and half ox. He knew that soon he would be 
called in. 


142 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


When the family of wife, many sons, several 
daughters, servants, retainers, hangers-on, and 
what not, saw their master half man an4 half ox, 
with horns and hoofs, they were distracted. Each 
one had his own notion of how to get him back 
into human form and like his former self. Each 
one ran all over town and into the adjoining vil- 
lages to get and call in the mudangs. 

These mudangs were the people, mostly women, 
whose business it was to drive out the imps and 
bad fairies, such as had, in this case, done the mis- 
chief. The kitchen maids stoutly declared that 
Tokgabi had wrought the change upon their mas- 
ter. They felt quite sure of it; but the men thought 
that the gods of the mountains were punishing him 
for his sins. On the other hand, the mudang wo- 
man said she would find out and get him back into 
his human skin, if they paid her enough money. 

With drums and dancing and songs, screams, 
yells, and every sort of noise, the mudangs kept 
up such a terrible racket that it almost deafened 
the family. There were several of them called in, 
and they knew that they would all be well paid. 

Meanwhile the doctors also kept on with their 
awful medicines, besides rubbing, pounding, blow- 
ing, and sticking needles into the bull and burn- 
ing moxa, or little balls of cottony mugwort, on 
its hide. 

Yet not a hoof or horn, not even a hair changed. 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


143 


The mudangs declared that the imps had got 
inside the man and they must get them out. One 
fellow carried a big bottle to trap the imps and 
cork them in. Another insisted that they would 
have to use scissors and snip the skin in about 
a hundred places, thus making small holes to let 
the evil creatures out. Then they must bottle 
them up, lest they should get out and overrun the 
house and infest the whole town. 

There seemed not so many chances of getting 
well as “one hair among nine oxen”; but the wife 
pleaded that they would put off using the scissors 
until all other means had failed. She did not want 
to see her dear husband’s skin made into a colen- 
der, or sieve, if it could be helped. 

At this point, when the din and the despair were 
worst and had come to a climax, Old Timber Top 
appeared. As some of the family had collapsed and 
lay helpless on the floor, and as all were too tired 
to ask questions, they at once made way for him. 
After looking at the patient with a face as wise as 
an owl’s, Old Timber Top solemnly announced 
that only one thing could save him and that was 
a rare and wonderful drug, of which only he knew 
the secret, but which he could speedily procure. 
Of course the wife, sons and daughters instantly 
promised to give up their ail, to see their husband 
and father himself again. 

So while Timber Top went out to get the fam- 


144 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


ous medicine, they all fell asleep, tired out, while 
the ox-man lay over on his side resting his horns 
and hoofs on the floor bed; for in Korea they do 
not have bedsteads, that is, beds raised up from 
the floor. 

As for Old Timber Top, when once out on the 
street, he immediately began saying to himself, 
over and over again, “Turnips and sticks, sticks 
and turnips.” 

Going to a vegetable shop, he bought a fine large 
turnip, or turnip-radish, of the kind that grows in 
Korea, silvery white and about four feet long. He 
first peeled, then sliced, and finally pounded it into 
a sauce very fine. Then entering the house in 
triumph, he woke up the doctors, kicked the ser- 
vants awake, and announced that the potent drug 
would soon restore their master. He solemnly bade 
them all watch and see him do it. 

Pulling and hauling all together, five or six fel- 
lows were able to get the man-bull on his two hoofs 
and two feet and then Timber Top put a spoon- 
ful of the sauce on the big tongue. 

At once a most marvellous change took place! 

The horns shortened until they disappeared, the 
lips thinned, the mouth became smaller. Hoofs, 
hair, and hide departed into empty air. In the 
wagging of a dog’s tail, the mighty man of the 
house had become himself again. 

All the doctors, jugglers, and mudangs packed 


OLD TIMBER TOP 


145 


up their imp-bottles and medicines, and with their 
drums, flutes, bags, boxes and wares slunk away, 
while the family loaded Old Timber Top with 
grateful thanks and compliments. 

As for the master, he declared Timber Top the 
greatest physician the world ever knew. He in- 
vited him to make the house his permanent home 
and showered upon him many gifts, with plenty 
to eat, and white clothes starched as white as snow. 
The hats with which he presented Timber Top 
were so big around and had a brim so wide, that 
he used them when covered with oiled paper cov- 
ers as umbrellas in rainy weather, but he never 
went out doors when the wind was blowing, for 
fear he would be whirled down the street. Besides 
this, he feared there was still much wood in his 
head, which might turn into a top and spin round, 
if he were not careful. 

Old Timber Top set up a medicine office, prac- 
ticed among the nobility and became physician to 
the king. When he visited the palace, he used a 
red visiting card, a foot long. He had a plastron, 
or square of velvet embroidery on his breast. He 
wore a string of amber beads as big as walnuts 
over his ears. He soon became fat with a double 
chin and plump fingers, showing that he reeked 
with prosperity. He lived to a good old age, his 
family were made comfortable, his sons and daugh- 


146 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


ters married well, and he had seventeen grand- 
children before he died. 

Yet all the time, the fairies claimed that they 
did it all. They made the sticks work one way, 
and the turnips another, and they still play their 
tricks on the Koreans, especially those with more 
or less wood in their heads. 


SIR ONE LONG BODY AND MADAM 
THOUSAND FEET 


I N the land of Morning Radiance, where the 
family names have only one syllable, such 
as Kim, Yi, Pil, Wun, Hap, etc., they wear 
shoes, but these are not made of black leather. 
The people neither stand up on wooden clogs as 
in Japan, nor case their feet in straight soled gait- 
ers, without heels, as in China. The gentlemen 
put on white socks with tough hide soles, and the 
ladies don dainty slippers with the pointed toes 
turned up. Common folks’ sandals are made 
chiefly of straw and twine and it takes a good deal 
of cordage to complete a pair. 

Now there once lived under an old stone below 
a persimmon tree a fair young creature named 
Miss Thousand Feet. She wore lead-colored 
clothes and had so many toes to take care of that 
any one who tried to count them soon got tired; 
so he stopped and called the whole amount a thou- 
sand, which was a number as round as herself. 
She was as proud of each one of her many little 
feet as a Chinese lady, who has only two of them. 


147 


148 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Miss Thousand Feet was very modest, however, 
and if any one stepped on her toes, or touched 
her, she curled up, first into a ring and then into a 
ball, so that men, by a pun on her family name, 
called her “a pill millipede,” for she belonged to 
the Pil family, one of the most famous in all Korea. 

Miss Thousand Feet was very happy living 
under a damp stone in the cool earth and she 
played a good deal. But by and by, when she grew 
up, her parents told her it was time for her to get 
married. So they looked around, to see if any 
gentleman in the whole creation was worthy of her, 
not only to make a suitable husband, but also a 
good match. 

Now in another village lived a rich, fat, young 
and promising male creature, named Mr. Long 
Body, of the Wum family. His business was to 
eat his way through the ground, and pile up little 
curled heaps of mud on the surface, and at this 
work he was kept very busy. He had to look out 
for the birds, for they enjoyed eating folks like 
him, he was so soft and sweet. Constant exercise 
in moving through the ground kept his body shin- 
ing, so that altogether, as earthworms go, he was 
quite handsome and considered a good catch for 
Miss Thousand Feet. Furthermore, as he had 
no feet and she had so many, while his body was 
long and hers quite short, it was supposed that one 
would make up where the other lacked and that 


SIR ONE LONG BODY 149 

both would be happy together as husband and 
wife. 

Mr. Long Body, when he heard of the charms 
of Miss Thousand Feet, was of the same opinion. 
All his friends were pairing off, the males bringing 
home their brides to their fathers’ houses and set- 
ting up housekeeping. As he had come of age, he 
also determined to marry. 

So he sent letters and opened the business, ac- 
cording to Korean etiquette, through a “go-be- 
tween,” as the lady who arranges marriages is 
called. This person goes to see each of the two 
families, praising to one the beauty and graces of 
the promised bride and to the other the strength 
and wealth of the future husband. Indeed, she 
gives both of them a very good character. Finally 
the “six proprieties,” or “half dozen rules,” had 
been completed and the engagement of Mr. Wum 
and Miss Pil was announced. 

What a clatter of gossip was at once heard in 
both villages! No one ever thought that such a 
handsome fellow as Mr. Long Body Wum would 
ever marry into the Pil family. Some jealous folks 
hinted that Mr. Long Body, if he took a wife with 
a thousand feet, would never be able to pay his 
shoemaker. On the other hand, so long as his 
bride would be content with plain twine shoes all 
might go well; but for extra occasions, or if his 
wife were extravagant and wanted lady’s turned 


150 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


up house foot-gear made of red morocco such as 
only the rich folks wear, — well there would be 
trouble in the household. How could he keep her 
in shoes? Other persons, however, who knew that 
the Pils were famous people, wondered how Mr. 
Wum ever managed to get such a prize as Miss 
Pil. 

In the other village, the tongues of the gossips 
ran on in much the same way. What did she see 
to admire in that fellow without legs? When the 
honeymoon would be over and it came to making 
gentleman’s clothes for her husband, had she any 
skill with the needle? Could she make a long coat 
and one trouser leg big enough to fit him? And 
think of the many days of work necessary to cut 
and sew the garment, to say nothing of weary 
hours to be spent in washing, starching and giving 
a gloss to such clothes. The idea! Why, she would 
have to be nothing but a slave. 

As her husband’s semptress, tailor, and laun- 
dress she would get no rest. Think of washing, 
starching, and beating to a fine gloss the one- 
legged trousers, which Mr. Wum would often have 
to change; for he lived in the dirt! 

Now, Mr. Long Body Wum was so busy with 
his work of excavating the ground that he had no 
time to pay attention to the village chatterboxes. 
Miss Pil, however, couldn’t help hearing what the 
women and others said about her, and especially 


SIR ONE LONG BODY 


151 


the talk concerning the terribly hard duties that 
awaited her if she took a husband. While Mr. 
Wum kept digging at the tunnel three yards long, 
which he was excavating underground, so as to 
save up and be ready for his wedding, Miss Pil 
brooded over what the gossips talked about and 
over those awfully long coats and one-legged 
trousers she would be obliged to sit up at nights 
to make, wash, starch and gloss. Already she im- 
agined her arms tired in anticipation of starching 
and beating on the Korean lustre, without which 
no gentleman in the Land of Morning Calm ever 
goes outdoors. If his coat didn’t have that fash- 
ionable shine which long beating gives, the women 
would notice it immediately and pretty soon the 
men also. 

Miss Pil’s broodings night and day over the 
matter did not help affairs, and finally wore upon 
her nerves. She refused to prepare her own trous- 
seau, and despite all her friends told her in praise 
of Mr. Long Body Wum, she decided to write a 
letter to him, telling him that on account of his 
long trunk without limbs, and the great labor nec- 
essary to make him proper clothing and of starch- 
ing and glossing it, to say nothing of keeping it 
in order, she felt unable to hold to the marriage 
engagement and must break it off. 

But before she had dropped the water on the 
ink stone and begun to rub up the ink, or taken 


152 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


brush-pen and paper in hand, Mr. Long Body had 
got wind of her complaining and it worried him. 
Why should he marry one who didn’t want him? 

Then, as he thought it over, being a very thrifty 
and economical bachelor, be began to doubt 
whether he could buy shoes enough to fit all the 
feet of his betrothed. He had not looked on her 
face or figure yet. Indeed it was hardly Korean 
etiquette that he should — openly at least. So far, 
he had not seen her tiny feet to count them up, 
but he suspected that, since she belonged to the 
Pil family, she must have a thousand feet accord- 
ing to her reputation. When he came to calculate 
what it would cost him, even in cheap twine san- 
dals, he was startled. When he figured out what 
ladies’ turned up kids would come to he was so 
alarmed that he nearly fainted. At the sight of 
five hundred pairs of shoes, however tiny, his 
breath almost failed him and he saw himself ruined. 
What should he do? 

And when she took off her foot-gear at night, 
where should he stow it away? Then, what a noise 
she would make, if she put on rough-soled shoes, 
while at her work around the house and yard. It 
was horrible for a quiet bachelor even to think 
of the clatter she would make. Already he felt 
deafness coming on. Should he break off the en- 
gagement? Yet how could any one of the Wum 
family honorably do such a thing? What would 


SIR ONE LONG BODY 


153 


the neighbors say? Could he, if prone to break- 
ing his word, get another bride of a family so re- 
spectable as that of the Pil? 

However he would sleep over it, as there were 
some days before the wedding. But next morning 
the matter cleared up, and he was able to crawl 
into his hole and out of sight with comfort. He 
sent a letter to Miss Pil, setting forth the facts, 
and asking for a release from the engagement to 
marry. The substance of what he wrote was this; 
that owing to his small fortune he would be unable 
to buy her all the shoes, and of the kind which a 
lady of her quality and tastes required. He there- 
fore could not think of asking her to share his 
poverty, but begged her to secure another husband 
who could do so. 

Now it happened that the letters crossed on 
the road. Each had a refusal before the ink was 
dry; so neither could complain. 

So there was no wedding, nor any frolic among 
the young folks, or feasting of relatives, and to 
this day Miss Pil remains single and Mr. Wum 
has no wife. They were very severe on the girl. 
All the gossips say that it served the thousand- 
footed hussy right. Folks had better look on the 
good points in a person’s character and not dwell 
upon his faults and defects. On the other hand, 
in Mr. Wum’s village, all declare with one voice 
that bachelors should count up all the expense in 


154 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


getting married. Miss Pil still goes shoeless hid- 
ing from light under a stone, and Mr. Wum keeps 
out of sight underground, for he has nothing to 
wear. 


THE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS 


O bird is more common in Korea than 



the magpie. They are numbered by 


millions. Every day in the year, except 


the seventh day of the seventh month, the air is 
full of them. On that date, however, they have 
a standing engagement every year. They are all 
expected to be away from streets and houses, for 
every well-bred magpie is then far up in the sky 
building a bridge across the River of Stars, called 
the Milky Way. With their wings for the cables, 
and their heads to form the floor of the bridge, 
they make a pathway for lovers on either side of 
the Silver Stream. 

Boys and girls are usually very kind to the mag- 
pies, but if a single one be found about the houses, 
on the roofs, or in the streets on the seventh of 
August, woe betide it! Every dirty-faced brat 
throws sticks or stones at the poor creature, for 
not being about its business of bridge-building 
across the Starry River. By evening time the mag- 
pies return to their usual places, for they are then 
supposed to have attended to their tasks and built 
the bridge. 


155 


156 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


To prove beyond a doubt that the bridge was 
made and walked over, you have only to look at 
the bare heads of the magpies at this time. Their 
feathers have been entirely worn off by the tramp- 
ing of the crowd of retainers who follow the Prince 
of Star Land across the bridge to meet his bride. 

If it be wet weather on the morning of this day 
of the Weaver Maiden and the Cattle Prince, the 
rain-drops are the tears of joy shed by the lovers 
at their first meeting. If showers fall in the after- 
noon, they are the tears of sadness at saying fare- 
well, when the prince and princess leave each other. 
If any thunder is heard, every boy and girl knows 
that this comes from the rumble of the wagons 
which carry the baggage of the prince and princess, 
as they move away, each from the other, home- 
ward. 

Now, this is the story which the Korean 
mothers tell to their children of the Bridge of 
Birds. 

Long, long ago, in the Kingdom of the Stars, 
a king reigned who had a lovely daughter. Be- 
sides being the most beautiful to behold, she was 
a skilful weaver. There was no good thing to be 
done in the palace, but she could do it. She was 
not only highly accomplished, but of sweet temper 
and very willing. Being a model of all diligence, 
she was very greatly beloved of her parents and 
her influence over her father was very great. He 


THE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS 157 


would do almost anything to please his darling 
daughter. 

In due time a young and very handsome prince, 
who lived in Star Land, came to her father’s court 
and fell in love with the pretty princess. Her 
parents consenting, the wedding was celebrated 
with great splendor. 

Now that she was a wife and had a home of 
her own to care for, she became all the more a 
model of lovely womanhood and an example to all 
the maidens of Korea forever. Besides showing 
diligence in the care of clothes and food and in 
setting her servants a good example of thrift, she 
thought much of their happiness. Her service to 
her husband was unremitting. Her chief ambition 
was to make his life one of constant joy. 

But the prince, instead of following his bride’s 
good example, and of appreciating what his beau- 
tiful and unselfish bride was doing for his happi- 
ness, gave himself up to waste and extravagance. 
He became lazy and dissipated. Neglecting his 
duties, he wasted his own fortune and his wife’s 
dowry. He sold all his oxen and calves to get 
money only to lose it in gambling. He borrowed 
many and long ropes of coin from any one who 
would lend him the brass and iron money. Finally 
he was so scandalously poor, being on his 
last string of cash, that he was in danger of being 


158 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


degraded from his rank as prince, and of having 
his name spoken with contempt. 

The King of the Stars, having seen his son-in- 
law on the downward way, had more than once 
threatened to disinherit, or banish him, especially 
after the prince had parted with his cattle. Yet 
when his daughter, the young wife, interceded and 
begged pardon for her husband, the king relented, 
paid his son-in-law’s debts and gave him another 
chance to do better. When, however, the worth- 
less fellow fell back into his old ways, and grew 
worse and worse, the king resolved to separate the 
pair, one from the other. He banished the prince, 
far, far away, six months’ distance from the north 
side of the River of Heaven, and exiled the princess 
a half year’s measure of space from the south side 
of the Starry Stream. 

Although the king in his wrath had hardened 
his heart, even against his own beloved child, and 
had driven her from court and palace, because of 
her worthless husband, yet, as a signal proof of 
his compassion, he ordained that on one night of 
the year, on the seventh night of the seventh moon, 
they might meet for a few hours. 

The young people parted and took their sad 
journey to the edge of the starry heavens, but 
they loved each other so dearly that, as soon as 
they arrived at their place of banishment, they 
turned round to meet each other on August 7th. 


THE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS 159 


So when the day came, after six months’ weary 
journeying, they had reached the edge of the 
Starry River, and there they stood, catching 
glimpses and waving their hands, but unable to get 
closer to each other. There one may see them on 
summer nights shining on opposite sides of the 
broad Stream of Stars, loving each other but un- 
able to cross. 

Feeling that the great gulf of space could not 
be spanned, the loving couple burst into tears. 
The flood from their eyes, making the river over- 
flow, deluged the earth below, threatening to float 
everything, houses, people, animals away. What 
could be done? 

The four-footed creatures, fish and fowls, held 
a convention, but it was agreed that only those 
birds with strong wings and able to fly high could 
do anything. So the magpies, with many flattering 
speeches, were commended to the enterprise. 

When these noisy and chattering creatures, that 
are nevertheless so kind and friendly to the spar- 
rows, heard of the lovers’ troubles aloft, they re- 
solved to help the sorrowing pair over the River 
of Stars. Out of their big, ugly nests they flew 
gladly to the convention that voted to build the 
bridge. Sending out word all over the world, mil- 
lions of magpies assembled in the air. Under the 
direction of their wisest chiefs, they began their 
work of making, with a mass of wings, a flying 
bridge that would reach from shore to shore of the 


160 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


/ 


Starry Stream. First, they put their heads to- 
gether to furnish a floor, and, so closely, that the 
bridge looked as if it were paved with white 
granite. Then with their pinions they held up the 
great arch and highway, over which the prince 
crossed to his bride with all his baggage and train 
of followers. The tables were soon spread and the 
two royal lovers enjoyed a feast, with many tender 
words and caresses. 

Every year, for ages past, on the seventh day 
of the seventh month, the magpies have done this. 
Indeed, although the star lovers meet only once 
a year, yet as they live on forever the wife has her 
husband and the husband his wife much longer 
than mortal couples who live on earth. It is law 
in the magpie kingdom that no bird can shirk this 
work. 

Any magpie that tries to get out of the task and 
that is too bad or lazy to do its part in bridge 
building, is chased away by the Korean children, 
who want no such truant around. For does not 
every girl hope to be as diligent and accomplished 
as the Star Princess, so that when she grows up 
she may make as good a wife as the lovely lady 
that every year stands by the Starry River to 
meet her lord? As for the boys, it is hoped that 
they will become as faithful husbands as the pen- 
itent bridegroom, who every year, on the night 
of August 7th, awaits his bride on the shining 
shore of the River of Stars. 



The lovely lady that stands by the starry river to 
meet her lord. 






























































































V 




















































































LONGKA, THE DANCING GIRL 


FTER the islanders in the Eastern Ocean 



had found out how rich Korea was, they 


were not satisfied with their own land. 


They seemed to have eyes like dragon flies, that 
wanted everything they saw. They kept on bor- 
rowing until they got many of the plants and ani- 
mals which they now possess, which as everybody 
knows came from the Land of Morning Glory. 

Even the neko, or Korean cat, was carried over 
to the islands; though in some way it lost its tail 
on the voyage or else had it bobbed. This is the 
reason why poor pussy in these islands seems to 
carry around with her something like a corkscrew, 
instead of a tail. Moreover, when the Korean puss, 
that had so long been accustomed to scrambling 
over the roofs and back alleys at home, was in- 
troduced into the islands, it was thought to be a 
wild animal, and for a long time was treated as a 
fox or badger would be. However, because it kept 
down the rats and the mice this bob-tailed puss 
was highly valued. 

Yet not content with borrowing so many things, 


161 


162 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


the greedy islemen thought they might as well 
have all Korea and everything in it, and then go 
further and overrun China. 

So they sent a great army in a mighty fleet of 
ships to invade the Koreans’ country. They took 
horses with them, but as their soldiers were fed 
chiefly on rice, salt fish and pickles, they did not 
need any wagons. They had only oxen to draw 
their carts, for they had never trained horses to 
pull anything, but only to be pack and saddle 
animals. 

This army of islanders marched to the capital, 
in which were palaces, and pagodas. Then they 
sent one of their armies along the sea front and 
another along the west coast. They expected to 
march into China, but two things happened to 
prevent this. So, after they had wasted and tarried 
in the country for five years, they gave it up and 
were sent home flying. 

From the north a Chinese army came to the 
help of the Koreans and drove the islemen to the 
coast. But when they got there they found their 
ships were gone. A clever Korean admiral had in- 
vented an iron-clad ship that rammed and sunk 
their war junks. So their army had to wait till a 
new fleet of ships had been built and then came 
over to take them back. 

But before the islanders left Korea they smashed 
statues and monuments, broke up images and even 


LONGKA, THE DANCING GIRL 163 

the observatories for the study of the stars. They 
took marble pagodas apart to load on their ships 
and carry away. They enticed, or forced to go 
with them, hundreds of the Korean potters, 
artists, and craftsmen. 

For, by this time, the islanders had given up 
living in huts of straw and roving about like Arabs 
or gypsies. They had cities with paved streets, 
like as in Korea, though they had none of the 
beautiful marble pagodas and images and temples, 
for everything was of wood, while thousands of 
large buildings and images in Korea were of stone, 
chiseled into beautiful forms. 

Now in Korea there were some beautiful daugh- 
ters of the land and many noblemen and men of 
courage, who determined not to be carried away 
from their dearly beloved country. Of this, in 
southern Korea, the Rock of the Fallen Flower 
is to this day the witness. 

Over three hundred years ago, when “the ter- 
rible fighting dwarfs,” as the Koreans called their 
enemies, came, they encamped in a town where 
lived a beautiful dancing girl named Longka. Be- 
ing a ge-sang, (gei-sha) or accomplished young 
lady, she could sing beautifully. The islanders 
took this lovely damsel prisoner and made her a 
waitress in the general’s tent. 

One night a great banquet was given in a fa- 
mous pleasure hall named the Cliff House, because 


164 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


it was built on the high bank overlooking a deep 
river. All the chief captains were invited and the 
large room was illuminated with a thousand wax 
lights. These were tall and square candles, moulded 
into a beautiful shape, and each one was painted 
and decorated with figures of flowers, birds and 
pet animals. Very odd and ornamental is a Korean 
candle. 

O how charming was the dancer, and what a 
beautiful sight to behold, was her graceful posing! 
For, Korean dances tell stories of birds and 
flowers, of summer, and of lovely snow-covered 
landscapes in winter, of a boat in a storm, of a 
tiger in a trap, of a brave soldier in battle, or a 
sad lady in the palace, or of the fairy tales of the 
Western Queen Mother and many others. Those 
who watch the dance and know the manners and 
customs, the dancer’s gestures and poses, the mo- 
tions of her fan and sleeves, besides the games 
of the children, the sports of the people, the har- 
vest songs and the fun at the festivals, can read, 
because they see, the story of each told in most 
graceful motions. There are several languages, 
besides words which are spoken, and these appeal 
to the eye, instead of the ear. 

The pretty dancer was robed in pure white, with 
ermine-edged slippers, and jeweled girdle, and her 
shining hair was done up like a queen’s. Loud was 


LONGKA, THE DANCING GIRL 165 

the applause among the spectators at the end of 
every dance. 

After the dinner was over, the general of the 
islanders grew very lively, because he had drunk 
much wine, and was not satisfied to see the dances 
of the lovely girl. Some of the rude soldiers also 
wanted to waltz with the beautiful maiden. But 
it was not the custom for Korean virgins to dance, 
or waltz, with male partners; for in this Country 
of Gentle Manners, dancing is by the sexes apart. 

Yet the rough islanders insisted and forced her 
so hard, that she felt that both her own modesty 
and her country were outraged. She thought of 
the thousands of her countrymen, brothers, 
fathers and friends, who had died on the battle 
field, in defending their beloved land. Why should 
not she? So, pretending to yield to her country’s 
enemies, she drew the general out of the banquet- 
ing hall and down toward the river, close to the 
edge of the rock. 

Before he knew her purpose she seized his 
hands and leaped out, dragging her enemy with 
her over the cliff, and both passed into the other 
world. 

She died for her country. To this day, the Rock 
of the Falling Flower is pointed out, and the story 
is told that here was exhibited a woman’s devo- 
tion to her country. Around this rock poets have 


166 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


entwined their verses, while romantic associations 
cluster like the azalea flowers, that cover the hills 
of Korea with a riot of color, making their land 
seem to the natives the most beautiful on earth. 


A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 


O FF in a valley among very stony moun- 
tains, lived an old farmer named Pak We 
and his wife. His land was poor and he 
had to toil from sunrise to sunset and often in the 
night, when the moon was shining, to get food. 
No child had ever come to his home and he was 
in too great straits of poverty to adopt a son. So 
he took his amusement in fishing in the pond 
higher up on the hills, that fed the stream which 
watered his millet and rice fields. Being very skil- 
ful he often caught a good string of fish and these 
he sold in the village near by to get for himself 
and his wife the few comforts they needed. Thus 
the old couple kept themselves happy, despite their 
cheerless life, though they often wondered what 
would become of them when they got too old to 
work. 

But one summer Pak noticed that there were 
fewer fish in the pond and that every day they 
seemed to be less in number. Where he used to 
catch a stringful in an hour, he could hardly get 
half that manv during a whole day. 

167 


168 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


What was the matter? Was he getting less 
skilful? Was the bait poor? 

Not at all! His worms were as fat, his hooks 
and lines in as good order, and his eyesight was 
as keen as ever. 

When Pak noticed also that the water was get- 
ting shallower, he was startled. Could it be that 
the pond was drying up? 

Things grew worse day by day until at last 
there were no fish. 

Where once sparkled the wavelets of a pond 
was now an arid waste of earth and stones, over 
which trickled hardly more than a narrow rill, 
which he could jump over. No fish and no pond 
meant no water for his rice fields. In horror at the 
idea of starving, or having to move away from 
his old home and become a pauper, Pak looked 
down from what had been the banks of the pond 
to find the cause of all this trouble. There in the 
mud among the pebbles he saw a bullfrog, nearly 
as big as an elephant, blinking at him with its 
huge round eyes. 

In a rage the farmer Pak burst out, charging 
the frog with cruelty in eating up all the fish and 
drinking up all the water, threatening starvation 
to man and wife. Then Pak proceeded to curse 
the whole line of the frog’s ancestors and relatives, 
especially in the female line, for eight generations 
back, as Koreans usually do. 


A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 


169 


But instead of being sorry, or showing any anger 
at such a scolding, the bullfrog only blinked and 
bowed, saying: 

“ Don’t worry, Farmer Pak. You’ll be glad of 
it, by and by. Besides, I want to go home with you 
and live in your house. 

“What! Occupy my home, you clammy rep- 
tile! No you won’t,” said Pak. 

“ Oh! but I have news to tell you and you won’t 
be sorry, for you see what I can do. Better take 
me in.” 

Old Pak thought it over. How should he face 
his wife with such a guest? But then, the frog 
had news to tell and that might please the old 
lady, who was fond of gossip. Since her husband 
was not very talkative, she might be willing to 
harbor so strange a guest. 

So they started down the valley. Pak shuffled 
along as fast as his old shins could move, but 
the bullfrog covered the distance in a few leaps, 
for his hind legs were three feet long. 

Arrived at his door, Mrs. Pak was horrified 
at the prospect of boarding such a guest. But 
when the husband told her that Froggie knew all 
about everybody and could chat interestingly by 
the hour, she changed her manner and bade him 
welcome. Indeed, she so warmed in friendliness 
that she gave him one of her best rooms. All the 
leaves, grass and brushwood that had been gath- 


170 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


ered in the wood-shed to supply the kitchen fire 
and house flues, was carried into the room. There 
it was doused with tubs of water to make a nice 
soft place such as bullfrogs like. After this he was 
fed all the worms he wanted. 

Then after his dinner and a nap, Mrs. Pak and 
Mr. Pak donned their best clothes and went in 
to make a formal call on their guest. 

Mr. Bullfrog was so affable and charming in 
conversation, besides telling so many good stories 
and serving up so many dainty bits of gossip, that 
Mrs. Pak was delighted beyond expression. In- 
deed, she felt almost like adopting Froggie as her 
son. 

The night passed quietly away, but when the 
first rays of light appeared, Froggie was out on 
the porch singing a most melodious tune to the 
rising sun. When Mr. and Mrs. Pak rose up to 
greet their guest and to hear his song, they were 
amazed to find that the music was bringing them 
blessings. Everything they had wished for, dur- 
ing their whole lives, seemed now at hand, with 
more undreamed of coming in troops. In the 
yard stood oxen, donkeys and horses loaded with 
every kind of box, bale and bundle waiting to be 
unloaded and more were coming; stout men 
porters appeared and began to unpack, while 
troops of lovely girls in shining white took from 
the men’s hands beautiful things made of jade, 


A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 


171 


gold and silver. There were fine clothes and hats 
for Mr. Pak, jade-tipped hairpins, tortoise-shell 
and ivory combs, silk gowns, embroidered and 
jeweled girdles and every sort of frocks and wo- 
man’s garments for Mrs. Pak, besides inlaid cabi- 
nets, clothes-racks and wardrobes. Above all, was 
a polished metal mirror that looked like the full 
autumn moon, over which Mrs. Pak was now 
tempted to spend every minute of her time. 

Four or five of the prettiest maidens they had 
ever seen in all their lives danced, sang and played 
sweetest music. The unpacking of boxes, bales 
and bundles continued. Tables of jade and finest 
sandalwood were spread with the richest foods and 
wines. Soon, under the skilful hands of carpenters 
and decorators, instead of oiled paper on the floors, 
covering old bricks and broken flat stones set over 
the flues, and smoky rafters and mud walls poorly 
papered, there rose a new house. It had elegant 
wide halls, and large rooms with partitions made 
of choicest joiner work. It was furnished with 
growing flowers, game boards for chess and had 
everything in it like a palace. As for the riches 
of the larder and the good things to eat daily laid 
on the table, no pen but a Korean’s can tell of 
them all. In the new storehouse were piles of dried 
fish, edible seaweed, bags of rice, bins of millet, 
tubs of kim-chi made of various sorts of the 
pepper-hash and Korean hot pickle in which the 


172 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


natives delight, to say nothing of peaches, pears, 
persimmons, chestnuts, honey, barley, sugar, 
candy, cake and pastry, all arranged in high piles 
and in gay colors. 

The old couple seemed able to eat and enjoy 
twice as big dinners as formerly, for all the while 
the adopted Bullfrog was very entertaining. Mr. 
and Mrs. Pak laughed continually, declaring they 
had never heard such good stories as he told. The 
good wife was, however, quite equal to her guest 
in retailing gossip. One of her favorite subjects, 
of which she never tired, was the beauty and 
charm of Miss Peach. She was the accomplished 
daughter of the big Yang-ban, or nobleman, Mr. 
Poom, who lived in a great house, with a host of 
servants and retainers in the next village, and 
Mrs. Pak insisted there was no young woman in 
the world like her. It was noticed that Mr. Bull- 
frog was particularly interested when Miss Peach 
Poom was the subject of the old lady’s praises. 

After a week of such luxury, during which Mr. 
and Mrs. Pak seemed to dwell in the Nirvana, or 
Paradise, which the good priests often talked 
about, Mr. Pak’s full cup of joy was dashed to 
earth when the Bullfrog informed him that he in- 
tended to marry, and that Mr. Pak must get him 
a wife. Still worse than that, Pak was informed 
by the Frog that he would have no one but Miss 


A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 173 

Peach, the daughter of Poom, so renowned for 
her beauty and graces. 

At this, old Pak went nearly wild. He begged 
to be excused from the task, but the Bullfrog was 
inexorable. So, after inprecating his wife’s tongue, 
for her ever putting it into the frog’s head to 
marry Miss Peach, he donned his fine clothes and 
set out to see Mr. Poom. He expected to be beaten 
to death for his brazen effrontery in asking a noble 
lady to marry a frog. 

Now this Mr. Poom had long been the magis- 
trate of a district, who had squeezed much money 
wrongly from the poor people over whom he ruled, 
and having won great wealth, had retired and come 
back to his native place to live. This man had 
two daughters married, but the third, the young- 
est and most beautiful, Miss Peach, was now 
eighteen years old. 

Arriving at the Pooms’ grand mansion, Mr. Pak 
told of the suitor’s wealth, power and fame, high 
position and promise, and how he had made the 
old couple happy. 

Old Poom had pricked up his ears from the 
first mention of riches and power, and became 
highly interested as Pak went on sounding the 
praises of his prospective son-in-law. 

“ And what is his name?” asked Mr. Poom. 

Here Pak was in a quandary. He knew that 
the frog family was the oldest and most numer- 


174 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


ous in the world and was famous for fine voices. 
He fell into a brown study for a few minutes. Then, 
looking up he declared that he had so long thought 
of the suitor’s graces and accomplishments, that he 
had forgotten his name and could not then recall it. 

So Mr. Poom, in order to help Pak out, ran 
over the list of famous families in Korea, reciting 
the names of the Kims, Sims, Mins, the Hos, Chos, 
Kos, Quongs and Hongs, etc., etc., for Mr. Poom 
was an authority on the Korean peerage. 

“ It is none of these,” said Pak. “I deeply re- 
gret that I cannot recall the name.” 

“ Strange,” said Mr. Poom. “I have named all 
the families of any standing in the kingdom. What 
is his office or rank and where do his relations 
live?” 

Pak was pressed so hard by Mr. Poom’s search- 
ing questions that at last he had to confess that 
the suitor for the beautiful maiden was not a man 
but a frog. 

“ What! do you want me to marry my daugh- 
ter to a pond-croaker? You shall suffer for thus 
insulting me in my own house. Slaves, bring the 
cross-bench and give this wretch twenty blows.” 

Forthwith, while four men brought out the 
whipping bench, three others seized poor Pak, 
stripped off his coat, and bound him with feet and 
arms stretched out to the bench. Then a tall, 
stalwart fellow raised the huge paddle of wood to 


A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 175 

let fall with all his might on the bare flesh of the 
old man. 

But all this while the sky was darkening, and, 
before the first blow was given, the lightning 
flashed, the thunder rolled, and floods of rain fell 
that threatened to overwhelm house, garden, and 
all in a deluge. The hail, which began to pelt the 
cattle, was first the size of an egg and then of 
stones, like cannon-balls. 

“ Hold,” cried the frightened Mr. Poom. “Ill 
wait and ask further.” 

Thereupon the lightning and thunder ceased, 
the sun burst out in splendor. 

Mightily impressed by this, Mr. Poom at last 
agreed to let his daughter become the bride of 
the frog, not telling her who her husband was 
to be. Within an hour, while she was getting 
ready, a string of fine horses and donkeys with 
palanquins loaded with presents for the bride and 
her family appeared. Besides boxes of silk dresses 
and perfumes, head-gear and articles for a lady’s 
boudoir, there were troops of maidens to wait on 
the bride. Arraying Miss Peach in the loveliest 
of robes, they also dressed her hair, until, what 
with satin puffs and frame, jade-tipped silver hair- 
pins, rosettes and flowers, her head-gear stood 
over a foot high above her forehead, on which was 
the bride’s red round spot. Then when the happy 
maiden had sufficiently admired herself in the 


176 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


metal mirror and heard the praises of her attend- 
ant virgins, she entered the bridal palanquin — a 
gorgeous mass of splendor. According to custom, 
her eyes were sealed shut and covered with wax, 
for a Korean bride sees nothing of her husband 
until the end of the feast, when she meets him in 
the bridal chamber. 

So to his house she was carried in great pomp 
and with gay attendance of brilliantly arrayed 
maidens. The marriage ceremony and the grand 
supper were happy affairs for all the guests, even 
though the bride, according to Korean etiquette, 
was as if blind, quietly and patiently waiting sight- 
less throughout the whole joyful occasion. The 
actual ceremony was witnessed only by the foster- 
parents and the bridegroom. 

When in the bridal chamber, the bride having 
unsealed her eyes, and her vision being clear, she 
looked up at the one she had married and found not 
a man, but a frog, she was furiously angry. She 
burst out into a protest against having such a 
bridegroom. 

Gently and in tenderest tones the bridegroom 
attempted first to comfort her. Then, handing 
her a pair of scissors, he begged her to rip open the 
skin along his back from shoulder to thigh, for it 
was very tight and he was suffering pain from it. 

In her bitter disappointment at being married 
to a frog, she seized the scissors and almost vi- 


A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 


177 


ciously began to cut from nape to waist. Her sur- 
prise was great to find what seemed to be silk un- 
derneath the speckled skin. When she had slit 
down two yards or so, her husband the frog stood 
upon his hind legs. He twisted himself about as 
if in a convulsion, pulled his whole speckled hide 
hard with his front paws, and then jumping out 
of his skin, stood before his bride a prince. Fair, 
tall, of superb figure, and gorgeously arrayed, he 
was the ideal of her dreams. A jeweled baldric 
bound his waist, embroidery of golden dragons 
on his shoulders and breast told of his rank, while 
on his head was the cap of royalty with a spark- 
ling diamond in the centre. Yet no clothes, hand- 
some as they were, could compare in beauty with 
his glorious manhood. Never had she seen so fair 
a mortal. 

Happy was the bride whose feelings were thus 
changed in a moment from repulsion and horror 
to warmest affection and strongest veneration. 
The next morning when, to the amazement of his 
foster-father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Pak, the 
prince presented himself and his bride at break- 
fast, he told the story of his life. As son of the 
King of the Stars he had committed some offense, 
in punishment for which his father condemned 
him to live upon the earth in the form of a frog. 
Furthermore he had laid upon his son the duty of 
performing three tasks. These must be done be- 


178 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


fore he should be allowed to come back and live 
in Star Land. These were, to drink up all the 
water in the lake, to eat all the fish, and to win 
a human bride, the handsomest woman in the 
world. 

All the precious things which he had presented 
to Pak and his wife to make their old days com- 
fortable, and the gifts sent to the bride’s house 
before her wedding-day, had come by power from 
the skies. Now, leaving his foster-parents on earth 
to enjoy their gifts, he must return home to his 
father, taking his bride with him. Scarcely had he 
spoken these words than a chariot and horses, 
silver bright, appeared at the door of the house. 
Bowing low to his foster-parents, and stepping 
in with his bride, the pair disappeared beyond the 
clouds. 

From this time forth a new double star was seen 
in the sky. 


SHOES FOR HATS 


M ANY centuries ago when Korea was 
named Chosen, or the Land of Morn- 
ing Splendor, the island-kingdom out in 
the eastern sea, where the sun rises, was called 
The Land of the Dragon-Fly; which some foolish 
people call “the Devil’s Darning Needle,” because 
its body is so slender, its wings so wide and its 
eyes so big. The Koreans called these islanders 
“dwarfs,” because they were not tall of stature, 
though they were very warlike and brave. The 
isle men had no books or letters, and were very 
rude in their manners. 

Therefore, many kind teachers, filled with the 
spirit of Great Buddha, crossed the sea, from 
Everlasting Great Korea, to teach these islanders 
politeness, and how to read and write, and to build 
pagodas, and temples and schools. 

This is the reason why these islanders, who had 
no story books or writing before the coming of 
the Korean teachers, have no ancient history of 
what happened long, long ago when Korea was a 
great country. So the grandmothers in the islands 
179 


180 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


used to tell their children the good old fairy tales, 
which many elderly people know by heart, and 
can relate without reading, thinking that the kings 
and queens they talked about were real people, 
when they were only dreams. 

The islanders call their country The Land 
Where the Day Begins, and there are many fairies 
in these islands, some good, some bad. 

So today, these island people make pictures in 
books and plays on the stage, and “movies” about 
these Koreans. They get up tableaux and pag- 
eants to tell how first the fairies and the King’s 
servants from these far off islands, long ago came 
to Korea. They wanted to learn politeness, how 
to make and wear the proper kind of clothes, and 
how to draw and paint, how to make pictures, 
how to build houses, how to dance and sing, and 
make music and play on instruments, how to teach 
and have schools. For the good fairies always like 
to do pretty things. 

Yet instead of being grateful for what they had 
received from Korea, there was one of these is- 
land people, a famous woman, who was envious 
because she lived in a poor land while the Koreans 
had a rich and beautiful country. Instead of 
swamps and grassy plains, with plenty of wild 
beasts and birds, and only a few people, poor and 
miserable, Korea was rich in rice fields and or- 
chards full of fruit. Flowers grew in plenty. Birds, 


SHOES FOR HATS 181 

deer, and rabbits were numerous in the mountains 
and the scenery was beautiful. 

In the warm waters millions of fat fish swam 
and were easily caught. So the people had plenty 
of food to eat. Down along the bottom of the 
sea were most lovely water plants of rich colors, 
yellow, purple, green and white, with sea weeds, 
corals and sponges. In some of the sea caves 
lurked the giant crabs, cuttle-fish and every sort 
of marine monster. 

Still further down, below, deeper than any line 
could fathom, dwelt the Dragon King of the World 
Under the Sea and his Queen, with genii and 
dragons, and all her attendant maidens. These 
made sweet music, and here amid the mermaids 
the fairies had a happy time. 

These islanders had priests who went down by 
the seaside when the tide was low. There they 
called on the spirits of the deep to grant them a 
safe voyage, good luck, victory over the Koreans, 
and safe return. There they stood and watched 
the rippling waves as the breezes blew over the 
sea. 

The first living thing that poked its nose 
above the waters was the guardian of the seashore 
and the tides, called the Salt Water Giant. He 
came up with his head all covered with clam and 
oyster shells, sea weed, shrimps and whatever 
grows in the sand or bottom of the ocean. He had 


182 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


to push aside hundreds of white jelly fish that 
bumped against him, as the clumsy old chap made 
his way up to the surface and then waded to the 
shore. 

Now this giant fairy was a grumpy sort of a 
fellow, and seeing the Queen and her soldiers he 
growled out: “What do you want?” 

Very politely the Queen’s messenger made a 
soft answer to the big fellow and begged him to 
announce to his master, the Dragon King of the 
World Under the Sea, that the Queen wished him 
to help her. 

Would he please order all the great fish and 
every sea monster to go ahead and pull her ship 
forward? 

Would he also present her with the two spark- 
ling tide-jewels, which govern the ebb and the 
flood tides? If he would do so, then, in the one 
case her enemies might be overwhelmed. In the 
other case, the ships of the Koreans would be left 
high and dry on the shore. Then she could march 
through the country and get all the gold and gems, 
and furs and jewels, and clothes and nice things 
to eat, and bring them back to her own country. 

With the tide jewels in her hand she could cer- 
tainly conquer. 

“ And if you please, one thing more,” added 
the messenger. 


SHOES FOR HATS 183 

“ What else do you want?” growled the Salt 
Water Giant. 

“ Have your master, the Dragon King, give 
our queen power to capture many hundreds of the 
Korean artists, craftsmen, teachers, and men of 
books and letters. We shall make these men pris- 
oners and bring them to our country and be civ- 
ilized.” 

“ And what will you do in return to me and my 
master for all this?” roared the Salt Water Giant. 
His voice was like a booming cannon for he was 
as mad as fire. 

“ As soon as we get back safely to these shores, 
our Queen will build a temple in honor of the 
Dragon King. We shall burn incense to him, and 
our people will pay him our devotions.” 

“ Well then, what else?” roared the Salt Water 
Giant. 

“ There will be a shrine also dedicated to you, 
my lord, and we’ll get the best Korean artists to 
decorate it it in wave patterns, with drops of 
foam.” 

The Salt Water Giant bowed and disappeared 
with a tremendous splash. Down, down, down, he 
went to report to his master, the Dragon King 
of the World Under the Sea. 

It was necessary for the dignity of His Majesty, 
that the Queen and her soldiers should wait until 
flood tide; for the Dragon King never appeared 


184 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


except at high water. So the Queen’s servant 
launched her ship and waited out on the waves 
for the answer they hoped to get. 

No sooner did the tide mark on the sea beach 
show that the waves had reached the highest point 
of flood tide, than the sea opened. The white 
foam curled round the Queen’s ship while all on 
board held their breath, to see what was coming. 
They knew they would soon behold a sight to 
make them shiver, for the great deep was might- 
ily stirred. 

First rose into view a terrible dragon’s head, 
on the helmet of the King. It had eyes that seemed 
to flash fire. Then His Majesty appeared. In a 
great sea shell, as big as a bushel and held in both 
hands, he had the two tide jewels. 

These he presented to the Queen and then 
quickly disappeared beneath the waves. The last 
thing they saw was the dragon’s head, which, be- 
sides the two eyes like lightning, had teeth that 
could bite a boat in half, even when full of men. 
This monster could swallow down the whole crew 
in his mouth, that was as wide as a man-eating 
shark’s. His enormously long black moustaches 
were as stout as ships’ cables. 

Immediately after receiving the tide jewels, the 
Queen of the barbarians landed on the southern 
coast of Korea. After a few weeks, having fought 
many battles with the Koreans, she made them 


SHOES FOR HATS 185 

bring to her their gold, jewels, furs, fans, rice and 
pretty things. 

She and her people cared nothing about slaves, 
or common prisoners, but whenever and wherever 
they could find a painter, an artist, a costumer, 
a maker of pottery, or a man of books, or a priest, 
they seized and took him along. They carried over 
with them, to the island, a great treasure of gems, 
gold, ornaments and pretty clothes. They also 
took away many seeds of flowers and fruit trees, 
such as lemons, oranges, apples and pears. 

In the islands to which they came, these smart 
men of skill and knowledge from Korea taught 
the islanders, who had lived like gypsies or In- 
dians, how to build houses, palaces, and temples, 
to make fine clothes, to paint pictures, and to be 
like the Koreans and Chinese who knew all about 
these things. So the islands became rich in fruit, 
rice, grain, pagodas and temples. After this the 
island people wore lovely clothes, and had fine 
manners. 

Now the islanders were great borrowers. They 
invented very few things themselves, but depended 
on their neighbors for much of what they had. 
So they filled both their heads and pockets from 
what they had brought from Korea. But they 
often made funny mistakes. When they wanted 
to learn about fine manners and fine clothes, they 


186 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


asked what, on solemn occasions, and in time of 
ceremony, they should put on their heads. 

The Koreans were greatly offended at these 
savages from over the sea for invading their coun- 
try and taking away their artists and craftsmen. 
So they now resolved to play a trick on the is- 
landers. 

So when men from the isles in the ocean sent a 
company of men to Korea and asked for caps to 
put on their heads, and be shown how do to things 
properly, the Koreans in contempt gave them their 
old shoes, which had strings on them to tie over 
their feet. 

But the islanders, who loved to go about with 
little clothing on their backs, and usually went 
barefoot, did not know what these shoes were. 
They thought these were some kind of head-gear, 
hats or bonnets. 

So they put them on their heads like skull caps 
and tied them with the white strings down under 
their chins. These were like tapes and held the 
caps on around their necks. 

So to this day the islanders, when making offer- 
ings to the fairies, wear this head-gear and think 
their shoe-caps are very fine. 


THE VOICE OF THE BELL 

W HEN Tai Jo, the great general and first 
King of Korea, founded a new dynasty, 
he moved the capital near the great 
river Han and resolved to build a mighty city 
called Han Yang, or the Castle on the Han. It 
was to have a high wall around it and lofty gates 
on each side. However, the people commonly 
called the city Seoul, or Capital. All the roads in 
the kingdom lead to it. 

Happy was he when the workmen, in digging 
for the foundations of the East Gate, came upon 
a bell. It was a lucky omen and they carried it at 
once to the king. He had it suspended over the 
entrance to his palace and there it still hangs. 

But such a bell could only tinkle, while King 
Tai Jo wanted one that would boom loud and 
long. He was especially anxious about this, for in 
Silla, once a rival state, there had hung for cen- 
turies one of the biggest bells in the world and 
Tai Jo wanted one that excelled even that famed 
striker of the hours. He would have even a larger 
187 


188 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


bell to hang in the central square in the heart of 
Seoul, that could be heard by every man, woman 
and child in the city. After that, it must be able 
to flood miles of hill and valley with its melody. 
By this sound the people would know when to get 
up, cook their breakfast, sit down to supper, or 
go to bed. On special occasions his subjects would 
know when a king’s procession was passing, or a 
royal prince or princess was being married. It 
would sound out a dirge when, His Majesty being 
dead, all the land must mourn and the people wear 
white clothes for three years and Korea becomes 
the land of mourners. The guardian spirit of the 
city would have its home in the bell. 

Word was sent out by messengers who rode on 
big horses, little ponies, donkeys and bulls to all 
the provinces, publishing the king’s command to 
all governors, magistrates and village-heads to col- 
lect the copper and tin to make the bronze metal. 
The bell was to stand ten feet above the ground 
and be eight feet across; that is, as high and wide 
as a Korean bedroom. On the top, forming the 
framework, by which the bell was to be hung, were 
to be two terrible looking dragons. Weighing so 
many tons that it would balance five hundred fat 
men on a seesaw, only heavy beams made of whole 
tree-trunks could hold it in the belfry, which must 
be strong enough to stand the shaking when the 
monster was rung. It had no clapper inside, but 


THE VOICE OF THE BELL 189 


without, swung by heavy ropes from pulleys above, 
was a long log. This, men pulled back and then 
let fly, striking the boss on the bell’s surface. This 
awoke the music of the bell, making it toll, boom, 
rumble, growl, hum, croak, or roll sweet melody, 
according as the old bellman desired. 

So the procession of bullock carts on the roads 
to Seoul creaked with the ingots of copper. Many 
a donkey had swallowed gallons of bean soup at 
the inn stables before he dropped his load of metal 
in the city, while hundreds of bulls bellowed under 
their weight of the brushwood and timber piled 
on their backs to feed the furnaces, which were 
to melt the alloy for the casting of the mighty bell. 

Deep was the pit dug to hold the core and 
mould, and hundreds of fire-clay pots and ladles 
were made ready for use when the red-hot stream 
should be ready to flow. All the boys in Seoul were 
waiting to watch the fire kindle, the smoke rise, 
the bellows roar, the metal run, and the foreman 
give the signal to tap. 

When the fire-imp in the volcano heard of what 
was going on, he was awfully jealous, not think- 
ing ever that common men could handle so much 
metal, direct properly such roaring flames, and 
cast so big a bell. He snorted at the idea that King 
Tai Jo’s men could beat the bells that hung in 
China’s mighty temples or in Silla’s pagodas. 

But when there was not yet enough and the 


190 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


copper collectors were still at their work, one of 
them came to a certain village and called at a 
house where lived an old woman carrying a baby 
boy strapped to her back. She had no coin, cash, 
metal, or fuel to give, but was quite ready to offer 
either herself or the baby. In a tone that showed 
her willingness, she said: 

“ May I give you this boy?” 

The collector paid no attention to her, but 
passed on, taking nothing from the old woman. 
When in Seoul, however, he told the story. Thus 
it came to pass that many heard of the matter 
and remembered it later. 

So when all was ready, the fire-clay crucibles 
were set on the white-hot coals. The blast roared 
until the bronze metal turned to liquid. Then, at 
the word of the master, the hissing, molten stream 
ran out and filled the mould. Patiently waiting 
till the metal cooled, alas! they found the bell 
cracked. 

The casting was raised by means of heavy tackle, 
erected at great expense on the spot, and the bell 
was broken up into bits by stalwart blacksmiths, 
wielding heavy hammers. Then a second casting 
was made, but again, when cool, it was found to be 
cracked. 

Three separate times this happened, until the 
price of a palace had been paid for work, fuel, and 
wages, and yet there was no bell. King Tai Jo was 


THE VOICE OF THE BELL 191 


in despair. Yet, instead of crying, or pulling his top- 
knot, or berating the artisans, who had done the 
best they could, he offered a large reward to any 
one who could point out where the trouble lay, or 
show what was lacking, and thus secure a perfect 
casting. Thereupon out stepped a workman from 
the company, who told the story of the old woman 
and said that the bell would crack after every cool- 
ing unless her proposal was accepted. Anyway, 
he said, the hag was a sorceress, and if the child 
were not a real human being no harm could be 
done. 

So the baby boy was sent for and, when the 
liquid metal had half filled the pit, was thrown 
into the mass. There was some feeling about 
“ feeding a child to the fire demon,” but when they 
hoisted the cooled bell up from the mould, lo, the 
casting was a perfect success and every one ap- 
parently forgot about the human life that had en- 
tered the bell. Soon with file and chisel, the great 
work was finished. The hanging ceremonies were 
very impressive when the bell was put in place on 
the city’s central square, where the broad streets 
from the South Gate and those looking to sunrise 
and sunset met together. Suspended by heavy iron 
links from the staple on a stout timber frame, the 
bell’s mouth was exactly a foot above ground. 
Then, around and over it, was built the belfry. 
The names of the chief artisans who cast the bell 


192 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


and of the royal officers who superintended the 
hanging ceremonies were engraved on the metal. 
It was decided, however, not to strike the bell until 
it was fully housed and the sounder or suspended 
log of wood, as thick as the mast of a ship, was 
made ready to send forth the initial boom. 

Meanwhile tens of thousands of people waited 
to hear the first music of the bell. Every one be- 
lieved it to be good luck and that they would live 
the longer for it. The boys and girls could hardly 
go to bed for listening, and some were afraid they 
might be asleep when it boomed. The little folks, 
whose eyes were usually fast shut at sunset, begged 
hard to stay up that night until they could hear 
the bell, but some fell asleep, because they could 
not help it, and their eyes closed before they knew 
it. 

“ What shall the name of the bell be, your 
Majesty?” asked a wise counselor. 

“ Call it In Jung,” said King Tai Jo. “That 
means ‘Man Decides/ for every night, at nine 
o’clock, let every man or boy decide to go to bed. 
Except magistrates, let not one male person be 
found in the street on pain of being paddled. From 
that hour until midnight the women shall have the 
streets to themselves to walk in.” The royal law 
was proclaimed by trumpeters and it was ordained 
also that every morning and evening, at sunrise 



All the children clapped their hands. 


rswtr 





THE VOICE OF THE BELL 193 


and sunset, the band of music should play at the 
opening and shutting of the city gates. 

So In Jung, or “Masculine Decision,” is the 
bell’s name to this day. 

But as yet the bell was silent. It had not spoken. 
When it did sound, the Seoul people discovered 
that it was the most wonderful bell ever cast. It 
had a memory and a voice. It could wail, as well 
as sing. In fact, some to this day declare it can 
cry; for, whether in childhood, youth, middle or 
old age, in joy or gladness, the bell expresses their 
own feelings by its change of note, lively or gay, 
in warning or congratulation. 

At nine o’clock in the first night of the seventh 
moon — the month of the Star Maiden of the Loom 
and the Ox-boy with his train of attendants, who 
stand on opposite sides of the River of Heaven and 
cross over on the bridge of birds, the great bell 
of Seoul was to be sounded. All the men were in 
their rooms ready to undress and go to bed at once, 
while all the women, fully clothed in their best, 
were on the door-steps ready, each with her lantern 
in hand, for their promenade outdoors. 

Four strong men seized the rope, pulled back 
the striking log a whole yard’s distance and then 
let fly. Back bounded the timber and out gushed 
a flood of melody that rolled across the city in 
every direction, and over the hills, filling leagues 
of space with sweet sound. The children clapped 


194 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


their hands and danced with joy. They knew they 
would live long, for they had heard the sweet bell’s 
first music. The old people smiled with joy. 

But what was the surprise of the adult folks 
to hear that the bell could talk. Yes, its sounds 
actually made a sentence. 

“ Mu-u-u-ma-ma-ma-la-la-la-la-la-la ” un- 

til it ended like a baby’s cry. Yes! There was no 
mistake about it. This is what it said: 

“ My mother’s fault. My mother’s fault.” 

And to this day the mothers in Seoul, as they 
clasp their darlings to their bosoms, resolve that 
it shall be no fault of theirs if these lack love or 
care. They delight in their little ones more, and 
lavish on them a tenderer affection because they 
hear the great bell talk, warning parents to guard 
what Heaven has committed to their care. 


THE KING OF THE SPARROWS 


T HE Korean children are awakened every 
morning by the twittering of the spar- 
rows. These little birds build their nests 
among the vines on the roof and along the eaves. 
The people plant melon, gourd, and mock orange 
seeds along the sunny sides of their houses in 
spring time. All through the summer, and until 
late in autumn, the walls and roofs are covered 
with the thick green leaves. Here, in these shel- 
tered places, the sparrow mother lays her eggs and 
the father sparrow finds worms and feeds her, until 
the hungry birdies open their little mouths for 
something to eat. After this, both parents are kept 
busy in raising their brood and teaching them to 
fly. 

The greatest dangers to the birdlings come from 
cruel snakes that live on the roof and eat up the 
young sparrows. Sometimes, to help them against 
their enemy, the parent sparrows call in the aid 
of larger birds that are not afraid of the reptiles. 
These peck at the snake until they drive him away. 
There is always a lively chattering over the victory. 
195 


196 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


One day, a young sparrow that had hardly 
learned to fly was almost seized, and might have 
been devoured by the roof-snake, but was saved by 
a big, brave bird that flew at the reptile. Although 
escaped from the snake’s jaws, the sparrow in fall- 
ing caught its legs in the curtain made of split 
bamboo, which hung before the verandah of the 
house, and its limb was put out of joint. There it 
lay helpless between the splints. 

The owner of the house was a kind man, who 
loved the birds. Taking pity on the poor spar- 
row, he carefully lifted it up, smoothed its feathers, 
and quieted the little creature, while its heart kept 
beating so fast. Then setting its leg in place, he 
put some moist clay around the broken part, until 
it should be all right again. Meanwhile, he kept 
it warm, feeding the birdie until it was strong again. 
One day he took it in his hand and out-of-doors 
letting it fly away. Soon it came back and perched 
on the edge of the roof, twittering thanks to its 
kind friend. Then it spread its wings to fly to the 
King of the Sparrows, who lived in the city of Spar- 
row Capital, where it at once informed His Majesty 
about the good man who healed and befriended 
birds when they were in trouble and who had saved 
the young sparrow’s life. 

The King of Sparrow Land and all his wise 
counselors heard the story with great interest. 
Then they held a meeting and voted to reward 


KING OF THE SPARROWS 


197 


richly so good a friend of all sparrows. So they 
went into the storehouse where were kept beauti- 
ful treasures which human beings love. From the 
collection they chose what they thought would 
please most their good friend, such as gold, jade, 
brocade, cups and saucers, rice, horses to ride on, 
oxen to bear heavy loads and pretty maids to wait 
on him, besides silk and cotton clothes of all sorts, 
with delicious things to eat and drink. By some 
magic process, they packed these into a seed and 
then gave it to the sparrow in its bill to carry to 
the good man. They charged the bird on no ac- 
count to lose it and be sure to give it to no one but 
the right person. 

So the sparrow flew out of Sparrow Land and 
down to the house of its kind friend. Carefully 
laying down the seed, it kept near the paper win- 
dow-frame and made a great twittering, until the 
man came out to see what was the matter. Rec- 
ognizing his old acquaintance, he put out his open 
hand and the sparrow laid the seed in his palm, 
meanwhile chattering in a lively way and looking 
in his face as if to tell him how precious the treasure 
was. 

But the good fellow only took it in to his wife 
and told her how he got it, laughed over the matter 
and was going to throw it away, thinking it only 
sparrow fun. 

The wife, who was a wise woman, begged her 


198 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


husband to keep it and on a warm day in spring she 
planted it. It grew to be a luxuriant vine that 
clothed all one side of the house with its leaves. 
When one unusually fine large handsome gourd 
was nearly ripe, the man thought of plucking it 
for food; but, taking his wife’s advice, he waited 
until full autumn had come. By this time the 
gourd, having absorbed the sunshine all summer, 
was fully ripe. 

Then they took a saw to open it properly, and 
lo! a store of riches came out of that gourd, such 
as neither the man nor his wife had ever dreamed 
of. 

First issued something which spread itself out 
before them. It was a table of costly jade, such as 
an Emperor ever eats from. Next rolled forth a 
silver bottle of delicious wine and then the dainti- 
est cups, that set themselves on the jade table. 
Soon a gold tea-caddy appeared filled with the 
fragrant leaf. Then rolls of silk, fine muslin, satin 
brocade, and a store of rich clothes, hats, shoes, 
girdles, and socks enough to last a lifetime ap- 
peared before their eyes. After these were rice 
and cooked food of all sorts ready for a feast. 
Looking out into the yard, they saw strong horses 
and fat oxen waiting to do their master’s bidding. 
Last of all, some lovely young girls, as fair as the 
moon, stepped out of the gourd and proceeded to 
serve the good things of the feast, as if they had 


KING OF THE SPARROWS 


199 


been used to waiting on ladies and gentlemen all 
their lives. Following the feast, they danced, made 
music and gave no end of entertainment and ser- 
vice to the man and his wife, who were now as 
happy as king and queen. 

In their once humble home, now made over new, 
with all the store of good things and plenty of 
loyal servants and strong animals to serve them, 
the old couple lived without care and traveled 
where they pleased. 

But when a wicked man, that hated all spar- 
rows and had often driven them away from his 
house, because he thought them too troublesome, 
heard of his neighbor’s good fortune, he was envi- 
ous, and wanted to get riches in the same way. So 
he watched his opportunity and, when a sparrow 
came near, he threw a stick at the bird and broke 
its leg. Then he bound up the limb with clay and 
a bit of rag. He kept the poor sparrow until its 
leg was well, but dreadfully crooked, and then let 
it fly away. 

In the capital of Sparrow Land, the poor bird 
told about the bad man’s doings. The Sparrow 
King at once handed out a seed to be given to the 
enemy of the sparrows. When the naughty man 
saw the little bird with the crooked legs, he ran 
out, got the seed and planted it at once. He could 
hardly wait for the gourd to ripen. Wonderful to 
relate, however, the vine was most luxurious, cov- 


200 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


ering the whole side of the house and all the 
thatched roofs of the three dwellings in one, which 
made up his home. Finally in the autumn he 
plucked the fruit. Then, sitting down before the 
pile, with knife and saw, he began to open them. 

But instead of good things, and lovely people, 
and the treasures that make men rich and happy, 
such as his kind neighbor had received, there came 
out, one after another, the twelve curses of Korea. 

First leaped forth a party of rope dancers, who 
put out their hands and demanded money. They 
threatened to live with him and eat at his table 
unless they got their pay. 

There was no help for it. So the cruel man had 
to give each dancer a long string of cash before he 
could get rid of the party. 

No sooner had he opened the second gourd than 
out stepped a line of Buddhist priests, who at once 
began begging for the temples. He was only too 
glad to buy off these shaven pates. 

The saw had no sooner let the light into an- 
other gourd, than forth came a band of hired 
mourners carrying a corpse. They began weeping, 
wailing and crying out loud enough to waken the 
dead. It required another rope of cash to get rid 
of these pests. By this time the cruel man was 
beginning to feel very poor. 

Almost afraid to touch the other gourds, but 
still greedily hoping for riches, he sawed them 


KING OF THE SPARROWS 


201 


open; but one after the other yielded only what 
took his money and threatened to make him a 
beggar. From the fourth gourd issued a bevy of 
dancing girls, who refused to leave the house until 
he had paid them five thousand cash. From an- 
other gourd a pair of acrobats leaped out and be- 
gan a performance. But knowing that they would 
charge the more for their tricks, if they were al- 
lowed to finish their program, the man bought 
them off as he had done the others. 

Getting poorer and poorer, with no sign of 
wealth coming from the gourds, he yet felt he 
must open more, but the result was the same. The 
strangest people, men and women, such as loafers 
from the government offices, fortune-tellers, jug- 
glers, and blind folks appeared. These last had 
sticks in their hands to find the way, and bells at 
their belts to collect alms. Finally, of all living 
things, a giant stood forth, that threatened to eat 
up both the man and his wife. 

By this time there was not a coin or a cash left, 
and, besides being as poor as a rat, the man was 
hungry. W r hen the twelfth gourd was opened it 
seemed to have in it all the smells of Korea. Hold- 
ing their noses, the man and his wife ran out of 
their house. Happily for them that they did so, 
for just then a gale of wind blew down the house, 
and the thatch and timbers burst into flames from 
the fire that had heated the flues. 


202 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


Thus stripped of all their possessions, because 
of the man’s cruelty to the birds, the wicked fel- 
low and his wife would have starved, except for 
the kindness of the good man who treated the spar- 
rows kindly. For the rest of their days the old 
couple lived on their neighbor’s charity. 


THE WOODMAN AND THE MOUNTAIN 
FAIRIES 


O VER a half thousand years ago there lived 
in a northern village, near Ping Yang, a 
wood-cutter named Keel Wee. 

He owned a sturdy bull that carried on its back 
the fuel which he daily cut on the mountains and 
sold on the main street of his village, at the fair, 
which was held every fifth day. The docile brute 
could carry a load of faggots and brushwood piled 
many feet high over his head and tied down with 
ropes, so that at a distance nothing but his legs 
were visible. This beast, although so huge, was 
the gentlest creature imaginable. The children 
were all very fond of the big fellow and were ac- 
customed to play with him as if he were one of 
them, or at least like a pet dog. The reason of this 
was that when but a week old the bull-calf had 
been taken from his cow-mother and brought up 
in the family with the girls and boys. Only the 
puppy dog, that also occupied the house with the 
young folks, was a great favorite. 

On a fine summer morning, Keel Wee, leaving 
203 


204 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


his beast behind, went up on the mountain and 
cut enough wood to load up and bring down on an- 
other day. 

His wife, as she shouted good-bye, told him to 
be sure and be home in time for supper, for their 
eldest son had gone a-fishing and a good string of 
perch was expected. 

Shouldering his axe, he started up the moun- 
tain path. He had to go pretty far, for near towns 
or cities in Korea all the timber had long since 
been cut away. Every year the woodmen have to 
search farther afield to find fuel. 

Arriving in the woods where there was a clear- 
ing, Keel Wee prepared to wield his trusty axe. 
He was about to take off his big hat and outer 
coat and lay about him, when he spied, at some 
distance off, two fairy-like beings. They had long 
hair, looked very wise and were dressed in costume 
of the Chow dynasty of two thousand years ago. 
They sat on stones and played the game of go-ban. 

Coming near, the woodman took a respectful at- 
titude, and, looking on, soon became interested in 
the moves of the players. So far from being at all 
disconcerted at the presence of a stranger, the two 
fairies seemed by eye-winks to invite him to look 
on. Feeling quite proud to be thus honored, Keel 
Wee, leaning his chin upon the handle of his axe, 
became absorbed in the game and by and by grew 
quite excited. Forgetting himself and his manners, 


THE WOODMAN 


205 


he stretched forth his right hand to move one of 
the pieces. At once the fairy nearest to him gave 
him a crack on the fingers for his impudence, and 
jerked Keel Wee’s arm away. Then without say- 
ing a word, he took out from his wallet something 
that looked like a persimmon seed and put in the 
woodman’s mouth. After this all three were per- 
fectly quiet. 

Hour after hour the game proceeded and the 
players grew more intensely interested. As for 
Keel Wee, his eyes never winked, so hard did he 
look at the yellow board covered with the black 
and white pieces. Several times, when he thought 
he saw how the fairy on his right could beat in the 
game, or the one on his left make a better move, 
he felt like telling one or the other so. When, 
however, he tried to move his tongue, he found he 
could not speak, or utter a cry. Somehow he felt 
as if he were in a dream. 

Yet all the time he became more and more 
wrapped up in the game, so that he determined 
to see the end of it and know which player had 
beaten. He forgot that with mountain spirits 
there is no night or morning, or passing of the 
hours, nor do they care anything about clocks or 
bells, because in fairy-land there is no time. 

All the while Keel Wee was leaning with his chin 
on the stout axe-handle, holding it with both hands 
under his neck. He took no note of the sun or 


206 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


stars, daylight or darkness and he felt no hunger. 

Suddenly the timber of his axe seemed to turn 
to dust and his chin fell. The next thing he knew 
he had lost his support. Down went his head, and 
forward fell his body as he tumbled over, upsetting 
the checker-board, breaking up the game and scat- 
tering the round pieces hither and yon over the 
ground. 

Awaking as out of a sleep, and thoroughly 
ashamed of himself for his impoliteness, he tried 
to pick himself up and humbly apologize for the 
accident which he had caused by his own rude- 
ness. He expected and was ready for a good scold- 
ing. But when he looked up, the fairies were gone. 
Nothing whatever was seen of them or of the play- 
board and checkers, nor any signs of their having 
been there, except that when he put his hand on 
the flat stones, which they had used as seats, he 
found them warm to his touch. 

But where was his axe-handle and what had 
happened? When he had left home, he had come 
straight from the barber shop, with his face smooth 
and clean shaven. Now he put his hand to his 
breast and found that he had grown a long white 
beard. As for the iron axe-head, it was there, but 
rusty and half buried in the ground. He had worn 
one of the big farmer’s hats, which, when turned 
upside down, might hold a bushel or two of tur- 
nips, and when fastened to his head spread over 


THE WOODMAN 


207 


his shoulders like a roof. Where could it be? He 
looked about him to find it, but saw only the bits 
of the slats inside the frame and a few scraps of 
what remained, for the rest had long ago rotted 
away. Meanwhile he had discovered that his joints 
were stiff, and he felt like an old man. His clothes 
were a mass of rags, his hemp sandals were no 
more, and, on both fingers and toes, had grown 
long nails like bird’s claws. His hair had burst its 
topknot string and hung down his back like a wo- 
man’s, only it was grayish-white. 

Wondering what it all meant, Keel Wee hob- 
bled down the mountain and found the road that 
ran into the main street of his village. Rocks and 
hills, rivers and rills were there, but what a 
change! Instead of the two grinning idol posts, 
of male and female faces, carved out of trunks 
and trees, with sawed-out teeth painted white, and 
artificial ear flaps of wood nailed on, such as had 
stood before every Korean hamlet since the days 
of Kija, there was a line of high thick poles, with 
iron wire stretching from one to the other and for 
miles in the distance. These, he found out after- 
ward, were called “lightning-thread-trees” (tele- 
graph poles). In place of the rambling and sprawl- 
ing three-sided thatched houses and yards, divided 
off with mats hung from sticks, there was a well- 
built but odd-looking office of painted wood, with 
openings through which he saw Korean young 


208 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


men sitting. They were dressed in strange clothes 
and were fingering outlandish-looking clicking in- 
struments. 

His curiosity prompted him to go up and look 
more closely, when something bumped against his 
nose and nearly knocked him over. When he tried 
again to get closer, his face was flattened, his nose 
nearly broken, and his lips knocked against his 
teeth so that they swelled. Feeling with his hands 
to solve the mystery, he touched something hard, 
which he could yet see through. Just then he heard 
a young man inside shout to him in Korean: 

“ Here, you mountain daddy, let that glass 
alone.” 

“ Glass? Glass?” thought Keel Wee. “What 
is that?” Yet he could not speak. 

He had hardly drawn a long breath when, look- 
ing down along two lines of shining iron in the 
street, he saw a house on wheels coming right at 
him. There was no horse, no donkey, no bull, no 
man pulling or pushing it, but overhead was a long 
pole, at the end of which, where it touched a string, 
as he thought, though it was an iron wire, was 
something that looked like a squirrel. It was go- 
ing round and round as if turning somersaults and 
seemed to be pushing the moving house along. 
Inside, near the same stuff which he had already 
heard was glass, sat a dozen or so Koreans. The 
whole thing, wheels and all, nearly ran over him 


THE WOODMAN 209 

as it thundered by, and his mouth opened in won- 
der, while a man on the end shouted rudely: 

“ Hello, old goblin, where did you get your 
pumpkin mouth? Look out or you’ll swallow the 
moon. Get out of the way of the trolley.” 

Thus did the man they called conductor, or 
guard, make fun of the poor old fellow, for in- 
deed he did look like one of the mummers, who 
on New Year’s Eve amuse or scare the children by 
putting on their shoulders the huge round devil 
heads and false faces that represent the abori- 
gines of Korea and the goblins that once lived 
in the mountains. These masks are usually shaped 
like a melon and are cut with eyes, nose and 
mouth, like those which American boys have fun 
with on All Hallow Eve. 

This was just the trouble. The woodman in 
tatters, with no topknot, long hair down his back 
and a white beard floating over his breast, leaning 
on a long white stick as he hobbled down the street, 
looked just like one of the ancient aborigines that 
had long ago been driven into the mountains. 
Nurses and old women frightened naughty chil- 
dren by simply mentioning their names. When 
one of these mountain men, odd creatures that 
were half savage in dress and ways, came into the 
town, all the children laughed and the big dogs 
barked, while the little ones ran away, for the 
sight was so unusual. Even the bulls bellowed, 


210 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


the donkeys balked, and the pigs squeaked, as 
Keel Wee came near. No wonder he was taken for 
a mountain granddaddy, or a bumpkin dressed 
up like one, for few of the city or village folks 
had really ever seen one of the mountain abori- 
gines, any more than they had seen tigers, that are 
plentiful farther away, but which only the hunters 
ever caught sight of. 

More and more bewildered, Keel Wee wended 
his way further into the town. He saw that the 
men no longer wore topknots, or chignons, nor 
did the lads have on the long braid down their 
back, which showed that they were youths, but 
not married yet. Just then some rough boys, sup- 
posing that maybe some rustic gawk had mistaken 
the time of year, jeered at him and cried: 

“ Hello, hermit, do you think it’s New Year’s 
Eve?” 

Keel Wee thought he had better ask some ques- 
tions. So catching sight of a dignified looking 
gentleman, in black broad-brimmed hat and flow- 
ing white clothes, who was coming down the street 
and toward him, Keel Wee bowed his head low, 
almost to the ground. As he did so, the stone put 
in his mouth by the fairies dropped out, and his 
tongue was loosed. He inquired as follows: 

“ Exalted sir, can you tell me where may be 
the wretched hut of my miserable wife and chil- 


THE WOODMAN 


211 


dren? She was the daughter of Gee Kim, and 
your contemptible slave is Keel Wee.” 

The gentleman, whose dress showed that he was 
a scholar and person of rank, looked long and hard 
at the questioner, to satisfy himself that he was 
not being mocked, or imposed upon by a jester, 
rope-dancer, sorcerer, or some such disreputable 
person, and then cried: 

“ Heavens! man, are you a beggar-spirit of the 
mountains? Your speech sounds like the dialect 
spoken in these parts five hundred years ago. In 
that time such a family lived here, but the head 
of it, a wood-cutter and fuel-seller, is reported to 
have gone up into the mountains and was eaten up 
by a tiger. Yonder in the graveyard are buried ten 
or more generations of his descendants.” 

“ Tell me, kind sir, what has happened here 
since King Wang died. It was under his reign that 
I was born and lived in this village.” 

Still eying the questioner, as if expecting to see 
him jump out of his rags and declare himself a 
mummer and the whole affair a joke, the kindly 
gentleman proceeded to give in outline the history 
of Korea during the previous five hundred years. 
There had been many kings. The Tartars first, 
and then the Japanese had invaded the land. A 
great war between the Mikado’s men and the 
Chinese had taken place. It was just over and 
now people rode in cars, talked hundreds of miles 


212 


KOREAN FAIRY TALES 


over wires, and traveled over iron rails as fast as 
a dragon could fly, drawn by a steel horse that 
drank water and fed on wood and black stones 
that burned. In a word, Korea was in an “era of 
civilization.” 

This was too much for Keel Wee. He now real- 
ized that he had lived ten times longer than the 
average man. So, hobbling over to the graveyard, 
he stumbled among the mounds until he found 
that one of his clan where the bones of his wife and 
children lay. Next morning, all that was seen of 
Keel Wee was a mass of dust, rags, some bones, 
and much long white hair. Yet, when they buried 
him, there sprang up around and on his grave 
strange flowers that no one had ever seen in city or 
village, but which bloomed only on the high 
mountains. 

































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